Special Collections
Human-Narrated Books for Adults
Description: Please enjoy this collection of Bookshare books, now with human narration! #adults
- Table View
- List View
Neverwhere
by Neil GaimanUnder the streets of London lies a world most people could never dream of. When Richard Mayhew stops to help a girl he finds bleeding in the street, his unremarkable life changes in an instant. This act of kindness leads him to a place filled with murderers and angels, pale girls in black velvet, a Beast in a labyrinth and an Earl who holds Court in a tube train. It is strangely familiar yet utterly bizarre.
Here is London Below, the city of people who have fallen between the cracks. And for Richard Mayhew, it's just the beginning.
Letting in the Light
by Charlotte BettsFrom the award-winning author of The Apothecary's Daughter comes the next book in the Spindrift Trilogy - a beautifully evocative, family drama, perfect for fans of Santa Montefiore, Lucinda Riley and Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles.
1914 Spindrift House, Cornwall
Edith Fairchild's good-for-nothing husband, Benedict, deserted her when their children were babies. Now the children are almost adult, Edith and Pascal, her faithful lover of two decades, are planning to leave their beloved Spindrift artists' community and finally be together.
But an explosive encounter between Benedict and Pascal forces old secrets into the light, causing rifts in the happiness and security of the community. Then an assassin's bullet fired in faraway Sarajevo sets in motion a chain of events that changes everything. Under the shadow of war, the community struggles to eke out a living. The younger generation enlist or volunteer to support the war effort, facing dangers that seemed unimaginable in the golden summer of 1914.
When it's all over, will the Spindrift community survive an unexpected threat? And will Edith and Pascal ever be able to fulfill their dream?
One Summer in Cornwall
by Karen KingEscape to Cornwall this summer... A heart-warming, feel-good romance, returning to the beautiful Cornish town of Karen's Kindle bestseller THE CORNISH HOTEL BY THE SEA.
When Hattie is made redundant and evicted from her flat in one horrible week, she needs time to rethink. Her Uncle Albert left her and her father each half of Fisherman's Rest, his home in the Cornish town of Port Medden, so this seems the perfect place to escape to until she can figure things out.
As Hattie stays in the cottage, clearing it out, tidying it up and getting it ready to sell, she starts to find her feet in Port Medden and making a new home here begins to feel right. If only her dad didn't need a quick sale and things weren't complicated by her unwelcoming neighbour Marcus . . .(P) 2022 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
Tell Me Everything
by Laura KayWould you entrust your life choices to someone hell-bent on avoiding theirs?
Natasha has everything under control, at least that's what her clients think. As a therapist, she has all the answers but when it comes to her personal life, she seriously needs to start taking her own advice. Still living with her ex-girlfriend, Natasha's messy love life is made up of dates and one-night stands. After all, why would you commit to one person, when there is an endless stream of people waiting for you to swipe right? Besides, people always leave.
But when Margot arrives on the scene, everything changes. Flailing between mending long broken relationships and starting new ones, Natasha's walking the line between self-actualisation and self-destruction…
With denial no longer an option, it is time for Natasha to take control of her own happiness.
The Three Dahlias
by Katy WatsonIt wouldn't be a country house weekend without a little murder. . .
Three rival actresses team up to solve a murder at the stately home of Lettice Davenport, the author whose sleuthing creation of the 1930s, Dahlia Lively, had made each of them famous to a new generation. A contemporary mystery with a Golden Age feel, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Jessica Fellowes - and Janice Hallett and Richard Osman, of course!
In attendance at Aldermere: the VIP fans, staying at house; the fan club president turned convention organiser; the team behind the newest movie adaptation of Davenport's books; the Davenport family themselves; and the three actresses famous for portraying Dahlia Lively through the decades.
There is national treasure Rosalind King, from the original movies, who's feeling sensitive that she's past her prime, TV Dahlia for thirteen seasons, Caro Hooper, who believes she really IS Dahlia Lively, and ex-child star Posy Starling, fresh out of the fame wilderness (and rehab) to take on the Dahlia mantle for the new movie - but feeling outclassed by her predecessors.
Each actress has her own interpretation of the character and her own secrets to hide - but this English summer weekend they will have to put aside their differences as the crimes at Aldermere turn anything but cosy.
A Day at the Beach Hut
by Veronica HenryEscape to the coast with this delicious collection of short stories and beach-hut inspired recipes from Sunday Times bestselling author Veronica Henry - the perfect summer treat!
On a shimmering summer's day, the waves are calling, the picnic basket is packed, and change is in the air. It's just the start of an eventful day for a cast of holiday-makers: over one day, sparks will fly, the tide will bring in old faces and new temptations, a proposal is planned, and an unexpected romance simmers…
This uplifting collection of eight original short stories and over fifty delicious recipes will transport you to the golden sands of Everdene for a perfect day at the beach hut, wherever you are.
Definitely Fine
by Amy LavelleHannah is twenty-eight when the worst happens. Her first instinct? To call her mum. The problem is, her mum having an accident, being rushed to hospital and never waking up was the worst thing.
Realising that she is now the Woman of the Family, Hannah has to be the rock for her emotionally-repressed father and chaotic younger sister, all while trying to muddle her way through the crucial life lessons her mother never taught her, like: how to ride a tandem, how to react when your dad starts making lasagne for an unknown woman, how to broker peace between feuding aunts, how to know if you really want a baby or if this is just the grief talking
But what Hannah really wishes her mother had taught her is: when you've just lost the person who made sense of everything, how are you meant to find yourself?
Hilarious, heartbreaking and completely original, Definitely Fine is a book for anyone who's ever felt lost in their own life. Perfect for fans of Dolly Alderton, Holly Bourne and Emma Straub.
Phone for the Fish Knives
by Daisy WaughWhen Hollywood wants to do a remake of the film that made Tode Hall famous, India and Egbert are delighted. They envisage a summer of free money and star-studded dinner parties ahead . . . But the Hall is soon overrun by wardrobe trucks and catering tents, and lusty, insecure actors squabbling about nudity clauses. When the movie's producers threaten to sue over the exact colour of Tode Hall's rolling lawns, India and Egbert realise that having a film crew on their doorstep isn't such a breeze after all. With so many egos in one place things were bound to end badly, but no one would have predicted quite so literal a backstabbing…
Two for Joy
by Adam HensonEver wondered why the dawn chorus is so loud in spring? What makes a summer sunset so special? Where to spot a murmuration of starlings in autumn? Or how to identify trees from just their bark in winter?
In Two for Joy, Adam Henson—much-loved and long-standing presenter of Countryfile—goes on a journey throughout each season to help you to find new and varied ways to reconnect to the British and Irish countryside. Discover what's happening on farms, growing in hedgerows, the stories behind countryside superstitions, how to revive lost traditions, what you might spot when you look up at the sky and stars—and plenty more in this uplifting guide to the nature that surrounds us.
Whether you read this book in the depths of winter in an armchair by the fire, or on a picnic rug in a field on a sunny day, it promises to open your eyes to the awe-inspiring powers of our uniquely British countryside in ways you've never noticed before.
The Year Without Summer
by Guinevere Glasfurd1815, Sumbawa Island, Indonesia
Mount Tambora explodes in a cataclysmic eruption, killing thousands. Sent to investigate, ship surgeon Henry Hoggcan barely believe his eyes. Once a paradise, the island is now solid ash, the surrounding sea turned to stone. But worse is yet to come: as the ash cloud rises and covers the sun, the seasons will fail.
1816In Switzerland, Mary Shelley finds dark inspiration. Confined inside by the unseasonable weather, thousands of famine refugees stream past her door. In Vermont, preacher Charles Whitlock begs his followers to keep faith as drought dries their wells and their livestock starve.
In Suffolk, the ambitious and lovesick painter John Constable struggles to reconcile the idyllic England he paints with the misery that surrounds him. In the Fens, farm labourer Sarah Hobbs has had enough of going hungry while the farmers flaunt their wealth. And Hope Peter, returned from the Napoleonic wars, finds his family home demolished and a fence gone up in its place. He flees to London, where he falls in with a group of revolutionaries who speak of a better life, whatever the cost. As desperation sets in, Britain becomes beset by riots—rebellion is in the air.
The Year Without Summer is the story of the books written, the art made; of the journeys taken, of the love longed for and the lives lost during that fateful year. Six separate lives, connected only by an event many thousands of miles away. Few had heard of Tambora—but none could escape its effects.
Echolands
by Duncan MackayAn original, revelatory, enthralling narrative history of how Queen Boudica led the greatest rebellion Britain has ever seen.
Almost 2000 years ago, Boudica led the greatest rebellion Britain has ever seen. Within the space of a single blood-soaked year, she united the tribes to deliver blow after devastating blow to the Roman regime, culminating in a brutal, decisive battle.
Archaeologist Duncan Mackay has spent a lifetime on the trail of Boudica. Beginning near his home in Norfolk, in the heart of Boudica's tribal territory, he embarks on a journey in the footsteps of Romans and Britons, exploring their villages, towns, forts and roads. The passage of two millennia has buried the world that Boudica knew, but Duncan finds that its echoes and physical traces still surround us—as long as you know where to look. The armies marched along the roads we still use, and died in their thousands in towns, cities and countryside where we still live today. The site of Boudica's last battle was long believed be lost to time, but the threads of the story all pull towards one remarkable, forgotten little corner of the English landscape.
From the Breckland of Norfolk to the back streets of Colchester, from the remotest corner of Anglesey to the depths of the London Underground, Duncan takes us back two thousand years to retell the story of Britain's bloodiest year. Fusing ancient history, modern excavation, landscape exploration, and vivid reconstruction, Echolands weaves the long-lost tapestry of Boudica's war.
(P) 2023 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
The Best of Me
by David SedarisFor more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to read without laughing.
Now, for the first time collected in one volume, the author brings us his funniest and most memorable work. In these stories, Sedaris shops for rare taxidermy, hitchhikes with a lady quadriplegic, and spits a lozenge into a fellow traveler's lap. He drowns a mouse in a bucket, struggles to say 'give it to me' in five languages and hand-feeds a carnivorous bird.
But if all you expect to find in Sedaris's work is the deft and sharply observed comedy for which he became renowned, you may be surprised to discover that his words bring more warmth than mockery, more fellow-feeling than derision. Nowhere is this clearer than in his writing about his loved ones. In these pages, Sedaris explores falling in love and staying together, recognizing his own aging not in the mirror but in the faces of his siblings, losing one parent and coming to terms—at long last—with the other.
Taken together, the stories in The Best of Me reveal the wonder and delight Sedaris takes in the surprises life brings him. No experience, he sees, is quite as he expected—it's often harder, more fraught and certainly weirder—but sometimes it is also much richer and more wonderful.
Bad Day at the Vulture Club
by Vaseem KhanIn the gripping new Baby Ganesh Agency novel, Inspector Chopra and his elephant sidekick investigate the death of one of Mumbai's wealthiest citizens, a murder with ramifications for its poorest.
The Parsees are among the oldest, most secretive and most influential communities in the city: respected, envied and sometimes feared.
When prominent industrialist Cyrus Zorabian is murdered on holy ground, his body dumped inside a Tower of Silence—where the Parsee dead are consumed by vultures—the police dismiss it as a random killing. But his daughter is unconvinced.Chopra, uneasy at entering this world of power and privilege, is soon plagued by doubts about the case.
But murder is murder. And in Mumbai, wealth and corruption go in hand in hand, inextricably linking the lives of both high and low…
(P) 2019 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
The Ballast Seed
by Rosie KinchenThe surprise of a second pregnancy, so soon after the birth of her first son, plunged Rosie into a despair that spiralled into deep depression. Terrified at the prospect of adding another child into her already precariously balanced life, Rosie was compelled to find a new way of living. She found herself instinctively drawn to the local parks and scraps of communal green spaces in her local south east London neighbourhood, and to therapy via tending a hidden garden deep within the city. Interlaced with her responses to the travel journals of an eccentric 19th century female botanist and adventurer, Rosie elegantly describes how these pockets of nature amidst the urban sprawl provided just enough to mend her broken spirit.
Are We There Yet?
by Emily Atack"In the underrated noughties film Crossroads, Britney Spears sang the immortal words 'I'm not a girl, not yet a woman'. Cheers Brit. I too find myself getting stuck somewhere between being an overdeveloped teenager and not quite being a fully functioning adult woman. I have no idea how to back-up my iCloud, I can't drive and I'm pretty bad at stopping men with exciting beards and unbuttoned vintage shirts from taking a big old walk all over me. In fact, not a girl, not yet a woman . . . it sums up my twenties perfectly."
Emily Atack was flung to fame at just 17, as the girl-next-door character in The Inbetweeners. Almost ten years later, she won over the nation on I'm a Celebrity Get Me out of Here with her cracking impersonations, epic bravery in the Bushtucker trials and general positivity.
Now, in her first book, Emily digs deep and reveals the hilarious highs and the heart-breaking lows that rocked the years between. With astonishing courage and her trade-mark humour, she shares stories about her family, first dates (and bad dates), first loves, moments where she's hit rock bottom and how she finally came to realise that it was all going to be okay.
Are We There Yet? is a warm, honest, FUNNY book for women of any age who have ever felt they needed to look a certain way or felt uncomfortable in their own skin. It's about life, love, everything grubby and glamorous in between, and ultimately realising that you're good enough. (Also she bought a laptop specifically to write this book so you better believe it's getting down and dirty :D)
Among You Taking Notes…
by Naomi Mitchison26th September 1939. I am beginning to wonder whether the point of a place like this may be that it will keep alive certain ideas of freedom which might easily be destroyed in the course of this totalitarian war….
Born in Edinburgh, Naomi Mitchison spent most of the Second World War in the fishing village of Carradale on Kintyre, her home until her death aged 101. Her life was crowded with incident, and her attitudes to events predictably forceful, original and honest.
Throughout the war she kept a diary at the request of the research organisation Mass Observation, in which she recorded both the momentous events of the time, and also how one (albeit extraordinary) family and their friends lived, what they hoped for and what actually happened. Her diaries developed far beyond the confines of a social document.
Written with the passion of a poet combined with the intellectual curiosity of a radial thinker, they provide a unique and valuable document of the period.
All the Young Men
by Ruth Coker Burks"If I have one message with this book it's that we all have to care for one another. Today, not just in 1986. Life is about caring for each other, and I learned more about life from the dying than I ever learned from the living. It's in an elephant ride, it's in those wildflowers dancing on their way to the shared grave of two men in love, and it's in caring for that young man who just needed information without judgement."
In 1986, 26-year-old Ruth Coker Burks visits a friend in hospital when she notices that the door to one of the patient's rooms is painted red. The nurses are reluctant to enter, drawing straws to decide who will tend to the sick person inside. Out of impulse, Ruth herself enters the quarantined space and begins to care for the young man who cries for his mother in the last moments of his life. And in doing so, Ruth's own life changes forever.
As word spreads in the community that she is the only person willing to help the young men afflicted by the growing AIDS crisis, Ruth goes from being an ordinary young mother to an accidental activist. Forging deep friendships with the men she helps, Ruth works to find them housing and jobs, and then funeral homes willing to take their bodies—often in the middle of the night. She prepares and delivers meals to 'her guys,' supplementing her own income with discarded food found in the dumpsters behind supermarkets. She defies local pastors and the medical community to store rare medications for her most urgent patients, and teaches sex education to drag queens after hours at secret bars.
Emboldened by the weight of their collective pain, she fervently advocates for their safety and visibility, ultimately advising Governor Bill Clinton on the national HIV-AIDS crisis, and in doing so becomes a beacon of hope to an otherwise spurned group of ailing gay men on the fringes of society. Ruth kept her story a secret for years, fearful of repercussions within her deeply conservative community. But at a time when it's more important than ever to stand up for those who can't, Ruth has found the courage to have her voice—and the voices of those who were stigmatised, rejected and abandoned—heard.
All the Knowledge in the World
by Simon GarfieldThe encyclopaedia once shaped our understanding of the world. Created by thousands of scholars and the most obsessive of editors, adults cleared their shelves in the belief that wisdom was now effortlessly accessible in their living rooms. Contributions from Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Orville Wright, Alfred Hitchcock, Marie Curie and Indira Gandhi helped millions of children with their homework. But now these huge books gather dust and sell for almost nothing on eBay, and we derive our information from the internet, apparently for free. What have we lost in this transition? And how did we tell the progress of our lives in the past?
All the Knowledge in the World is a history and celebration of those who created the most ground-breaking and remarkable publishing phenomenon of any age. It tracks the story from Ancient Greece to Wikipedia, from modest single-volumes to the 11,000-volume Chinese manuscript that was too big to print. It looks at how Encyclopaedia Britannica came to dominate the industry and how an army of ingenious door-to-door salesmen sold their wares to guilt-ridden parents. It explains how encyclopaedias have reflected our changing attitudes towards sexuality, race and technology, and exposes how these ultimate bastions of trust were often riddled with errors and prejudice. With his characteristic ability to tackle the broadest of subjects in an illuminating and highly entertaining way, Simon Garfield uncovers a fascinating and important part of our past, and wonders whether the promise of complete knowledge—that most human of ambitions—will forever be beyond our grasp.
All in My Head
by Jessica MorrisAll In My Head is a memoir by a woman who in her early fifties received a life-shattering diagnosis. It is about her determined search for effective treatment, the birth of a campaign to get proper data and funding for research into glioblastoma (GBM), and finally her coming to terms with the knowledge that she has reached the end of the road.
Jessica Morris takes the reader on a whirlwind journey. How does an ordinary person who last studied biology aged sixteen negotiate with world-renowned doctors and surgeons about cutting-edge treatments she must decide between? How do you remain positive when the median statistics suggest you have only fourteen months to live? How instead do you cast those fears aside and bounce back?
All In My Head is much more than a book about GBM. It takes the reader into the life of a woman who when confronted by devastating news chooses to be strong. It is about fighting adversity with hope and finding reasons to be positive in the darkest moments.
Zarifa
by Hannah Lucinda Smith and Zarifa GhafariZarifa Ghafari was three years old when the Taliban banned girls from schools, and she began her education in secret. She was seven when American airstrikes began. She was twenty-six when she became mayor of Maidan Wardak, Kabul. An extremist mob barred her from her office; her male staff walked out in protest; assassins tried to kill her six times.
Through it all, Zarifa stood her ground. She ended corruption in the province, promoted peace, and tried to lift up women, despite constant fear for herself and her family. When the Taliban took Kabul in 2021, Ghafari had to flee. But even that couldn't stop her. Six months later, she returned, to continue her work empowering women.
Zarifa is an astonishing memoir that offers an unparalleled perspective of the last two decades in Afghanistan from a citizen, daughter, woman and mayor. Written with honesty, pain, and ultimately, hope, Zarifa describes the work she did, the women she still tries to help as they live under Taliban rule, and her vision for how grassroots activism can change their lives and the lives of women everywhere.
Finding Me
by Viola DavisFINDING ME is the deeply personal, brutally honest account of Viola's inspiring life, from her coming-of-age in Rhode Island to her present-day career.
In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life changing decision to stop running forever. This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose and my strength, but also to finding my voice in a world that didn't always see me.
As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. They are bogarted, reinvented to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone who is searching for a way to understand and overcome a complicated past, let go of shame, and find acceptance. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be…you.
Finding Me is a deep reflection on my past and a promise for my future. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.
(P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers
Metamorphoses
by Karolina Watroba'A high-spirited, richly informed, and original portrait, a cross between biography, literary analysis and a study in modern canonisation: Karolina Watroba is an inspired guide and her book a pleasure to read.' Marina WarnerIn 2024, exactly one hundred years after his death at the age of 40, readers all over the world will reach for the works of Franz Kafka. Many of them will want to learn more about the enigmatic man behind the classic books filled with mysterious courts and monstrous insects. Who, exactly, was Franz Kafka?Karolina Watroba, the first Germanist ever elected as a Fellow of Oxford's All Souls College, will tell Kafka's story beyond the boundaries of language, time and space, travelling from the Prague of Kafka's birth through the work of contemporary writers in East Asia, whose award-winning novels are in part homages to the great man himself.Metamorphoses is a non-chronological journey through Kafka's life, drawing together literary scholarship with the responses of his readers through time. It is a both an exploration of Kafka's life and an exciting new way of approaching literary history.
Truly, Madly, Deeply
by Alexandria Bellefleur'You can never go wrong with an Alexandria Bellefleur novel' BuzzfeedThe new steamy queer rom-com from bestselling author, Alexandria Bellefleur - perfect for fans of Ashley Herring Blake, Casey McQuiston and Talia Hibbert.As a bestselling romance novelist, everyone thinks Truly Livingston is an expert on happily-ever-afters. Except she just caught her fiancé cheating, her parents are separating and her entire view on love has been shaken to the core.Already committed to recording a podcast sharing relationship advice, Truly hopes it will be the perfect distraction . . . until she meets her co-host. Her first impression of Colin McCory is . . . hot. But then he opens his extremely kissable mouth. Bickering with a cynical divorce lawyer is the last thing Truly needs - so she walks out, with no plans to return.When Colin tracks her down, begging for a fresh start, she reluctantly agrees. And as they turn from enemies to friends, she discovers they have more in common than she ever imagined, including their shared queerness. With their mutual attraction reaching a fever pitch, Truly feels happy for the first time in years. Yet she can't help but wonder . . . is Colin truly, madly, deeply in love with her? Or is it all too good to be true?Why readers love Alexandria Bellefleur . . . 'Everything I want from a rom-com: fun, whimsical, sexy' Talia Hibbert'I was hooked from the very first page!' Christina Lauren'This book is a delight' New York Times Book Review'Sparkles with a delightful mix of wit, humour and good-natured sarcasm' Mia Sosa
The Librarians of Rue de Picardie
by Janet Skeslien CharlesThe New York Times bestselling author of the The Paris Library returns with a powerful, moving new novel based on the extraordinary true story of Jessie Carson, the American librarian determined to bring books to the children of war-torn France.'This is hands down my book of 2024. A rich, glorious life-affirming ode to the power of books and female solidarity. Simply unforgettable!' KATE THOMPSON'A wonderful story about the power books have not only to inspire, but also to rescue and restore. The characters are so richly drawn... I absolutely loved it' RUTH HOGAN------------------------Under what was left of the roof of the ruined cottage, a girl with pigtails perched on a pile of rubble, hunched over a book...1918: As the Great War rages, Jessie Carson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France, a group of women determined to rebuild devastated French communities just miles from the front. Upon arrival, Jessie strives to establish something that the French have never seen - children's libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians. Then she disappears.1987: When NYPL librarian and aspiring writer Wendy Peterson stumbles across a passing reference to Jessie Carson in the archives, she becomes consumed with learning her fate. In her obsession, she discovers that she and the elusive librarian have more in common than their work at New York's famed library, but she has no idea their paths will converge in surprising ways across time.*Published under the title Miss Morgan's Book Brigade in the US*'An astonishing novel with the beating heart of courageous women who change the world through books. For every reader who was once told to get their head out of the clouds because they read too many books, this one is for you... A moving novel of sacrifice, heroism, and inspired storytelling immersed in the power of books to change our lives' PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY'Bursting with remarkable characters and filled with heart-in-mouth moments... an enthralling, emotional story rich in historical detail. Janet Skeslien Charles has done real justice to the legacy of these courageous women; this wonderful book is a gift to the reader' LIESE O'HALLORAN SCHWARZ'Bibliophiles are in for a treat' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY'I found myself captivated by this eye-opening book and reminder of the good that comes from dedicated hard work. I am grateful to Janet Skeslien Charles for educating me about the remarkable women of CARD' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Goodreads reviewer 'I love books about libraries and books. The fact that this book is actually based off of real people is amazing. This book celebrates the contributions that these women made when they are usually swept under the rug. I loved Jessie so much, and I will be thinking of these brave women for a long time to come' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Goodreads reviewer
Open Season
by Cassie Werber"A breathtaking novel that gets under the skin of the complexities of love, sex and human nature"-Katie Bishop, author of THE GIRLS OF SUMMER"A perceptive book about intimacy and desire that feels zingy, original, fresh"-Chloë Ashby, author of SECOND SELF"Tender, shimmering, elegant, and true... thoughtful and sensual, sexy and cerebral"-Laura Barnett, author of THE VERSIONS OF USEvery relationship has rules. What if they all changed?Hura and Cillian have a happy, secure marriage and are on the brink of planning a family. But when Hura's teaching career gets derailed, they decide it's time to explore a fantasy: opening up their relationship.Roses has never been monogamous. Her connection with elusive James-who works all hours as a junior doctor-is electric, and they're falling for each other. But both have secrets that make intimacy feel dangerous, and in a bid to reassert her independence, Roses suggests they sleep with other people.When these two couples collide, life shifts on its axis and starts to spin out of control. As Roses and James fight to keep the past from overwhelming them, and Cillian and Hura test the limits of trust, they must all decide which lines to draw-and which to cross.A passionate deconstruction of the complexities of sex, love, honesty and betrayal, OPEN SEASON marks Cassie Werber out as a major new talent.