The Yorkshire Belle is a glamorous steam train all decked out for an escapist festive getaway. It is not supposed to be where a group of people, all trying to get to their destinations for the holidays, will spend their Christmas. Seven people, each with their own hopes and dreams, secrets and sorrows, board the train as strangers, but as the snow keeps falling and they realise they are going nowhere fast, they are forced to slow down and embrace the present.

I’ve spent my Christmas curled up with this story and it truly made for heartwarming and festive reading that warmed that the cockles of my heart.

The story revolves around seven people who are all at a crossroads in their lives and this chance upon meeting where they end up spending Christmas on a mysterious and luxurious steam engine when they become stranded there during a bad snowstorm.

Grace and Frank are a married couple who are at loggerheads and their Christmas trip is make or break for the couple, Frank is an optimistic character who really shines in the story, taking over as leader of the group thriving and making food for everyone. Whilst Grace is a bit of a tortured soul who’s unhappy with life. Roo’s ex is now married to her ex best friend who’s pregnant and Roo doesn’t know where to go in life, now she’s single and homeless. Elizabeth is an elegant lady who’s set to be married to Gregory, but it seems to be more of a marriage of convenience than love, but it seems that her taxi driver Vincent has taken a shine to her and he’s in a place where he’s wanting to settle down. Even though Tim dresses as Santa Claus, he’s far from jolly, he’s a grumpy man who get riled particularly when outspoken Roo challenges him. Even though Jane is an older woman, she’s young at heart with dreams of travelling the world but is grieving the loss of her husband.

I loved the magic of this story, the beautiful descriptions of the glorious train and its opulent surroundings that swept myself and the passengers away. The mix of personalities are fantastic from quiet to fiery there was rarely a quiet moment with the story as the people got to know each other confined in the small space at Christmas time when they were wanting to be somewhere else instead of stranded on a train with strangers.

Another quirky and warm addition to the story is the inclusion of a local radio DJ that the people listened to called BBC Radio Brian, Bernard Brian Cosgrove, his dulcet tones accompanies them on the trip as he regales them with stories of nostalgia and facts about Christmas and life. I thought this added some magic to the story.

Wonderfully written and packed with warmth and charm, ‘Let the Bells Ring Out’ is the perfect story to get absorbed in whatever the season. A story about new friendships, grief, loss and chance encounters, another glorious book from Milly.

You can buy ‘Let the Bells Ring Out’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

Casey’s cabin in the wilderness is not built for a hurricane. Her roof shakes, the lights flicker, and the tree outside her front door sways ominously in the wind. But she’s a lot more worried about the girl she discovers lurking outside her kitchen window. She’s young. She’s alone. And she’s covered in blood. The girl won’t explain where she came from, or loosen her grip on the knife in her right hand. And when Casey makes a disturbing discovery in the middle of the night, things take a turn for the worse. The girl has a dark secret. One she’ll kill to keep. And if Casey gets too close to the truth, she may not live to see the morning.

I’ve spent the last two nights gripped to the latest thriller by Freida McFadden and boy, did she deliver with this story.

Frieda is a relatively new author for me, even though she is fairly new on the book scene, she has quite a books under her belt which I discovered only a couple of months ago. I first read ‘The Tenant’ by her and very quickly, I was reading three books a week by the author. Her books are action packed, fast paced and just when you think you’ve figured it out, it all unravels before your very eyes and ‘The Intruder’ is no different.

The story is seen from the perspective of teenage girl Ella and woman Casey. The past sequences are through Ella’s eyes, a lonely teenager who lives with her mother. An absolutely horrible woman who hoards every space in the house, treat Ella’s terribly and makes the young girl feel inadequate and alone. She locks Ella in the closet when she goes out and these scenes make for tense and claustrophobic reading. The present tense is seen from Casey, who lives alone in a cabin in the woods and is preparing for a terrible storm, but she gets more than just her electricity going out when Ella turns up at her door.

The chapters alternate between both women and like all Freida books, I was on my toes throughout, trying to guess where it was going but still Freida managed to surprise me along the way, with cleverly crafted storytelling and characters that you feel a strong sense of empathy for. Between the scenes in the closet and the lonely cabin in the woods, there’s an awful sense of isolation in the story and this theme continues to flow through the story almost until you reach the final page.

Tense from the first page, with more twist and turns than you can ever imagine. A story of desperation and endurance, ‘The Intruder’ is a fantastic thriller from Freida that has left me bursting for more books by the author.

You can buy ‘The Intruder’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

After impulsively jacking in her dead-end temp job and investing her life savings in a ramshackle old horsebox, Bea sets about turning her dream of running a bookshop into a reality, and opens Bea’s Book Wagon. But it’s not all smooth sailing, and as Bea struggles with the challenges of running her own small business, she can only hope that her love of literature and the power of reading can help transform the lives of her friends, her community and herself in the process.

I spent my day cosying up with the latest book by Julie Haworth and it was an absolutely glorious story. An inspirational story of following your dreams, new beginnings and books, books books, this book was perfect from the first page!

The story is seen primarily from the perspective of Bea, a woman who’s tired of being a dogsbody in a temping post and decides to pack it in and after a drunken buy on eBay buys a horse box to turn into a mobile bookshop. With the help of family and friends, Bea fulfils her dream of sharing her passion of books and helps others along the way, including a gentleman called Arthur who she introduces to the Jack Reacher stories.

I genuinely loved this story, if life hadn’t gotten in the way I would have consumed it in one sitting. It’s beautifully written that flows at a gentle pace that really pulled me in. I loved Bea, she’s a wonderful lead character and as a fellow book lover, it was lovely to join her on her journey and bring her vision to life. I loved Nathan, her teenage sweetheart and his perspective to the story added a lovely twist to the story. Many people may have been swept away by Lachlan in the story, but I found his hero and flashy persona a bit much and cheered for Nathan the whole way.

A story that is charming, warm and deliciously uplifting, ‘Bea’s Book Wagon’ is the perfect book to curl up with during the winter evenings, as it will warm the cockles of your heart!

You can pre-order ‘Bea’s Book Wagon’ from Amazon and will be available to buy from good bookshops from 9th October 2025.

Charlie is twenty-three, single and the new publicity assistant at the independent London publishing house Winden & Shane. Richard Aveling is fifty-six, married and the author that has defined his generation. Charlie has long idolised the charming, illustrious writer, who also represents a link to her late mother, who loved his work. But as they embark on an illicit and all-consuming affair, Charlie is forced to hide the relationship from everyone she cares about. And when the success of Richard’s latest book launches him to a new level of fame where all anonymity is lost, she realises she might just be in too deep.

I started this book late one evening and right from the first page I was gripped as this book really gets under the reader’s skin.

The story is seen through the perspective of Charlie, a young woman who works in the publishing assistant and gets the opportunity to work Richard Aveling, an author that she loved since she was a teenager.

But she is drawn to him and his masculinity and power and begins an illicit affair with him and he brings her into to his world.

I loved this story, it focuses on many issues grief, coercive control, mental health trauma rape and makes for dark reading in parts. Charlie is a lovely character, she’s a sweet girl who has never got over the sudden death of her mother, she’s vulnerable and Richard preys upon. Also it was mother that introduced Charlie to Richard’s writing so it was a connection to her mother that made Charlie fall for Richard.

Richard is the typical successful charming man that women fall for and it made for sad reading times how he treated Charlie and how she latched onto each moment with him as it was their last. I hated how he gaslit her and made her feel that she was not worthy of his attention. I loved Charlie’s friend Ophelia and Eddy and how they took her under their wings and looked out for her. I also loved the observational insight into relationships in this and how they progressed, whether is was professional, friendship and Charlie’s relationship with Richard.

This story is a fantastic one and perfect for people that enjoy a darker romance, with a sweet protagonist that you immediately connect with and want to protect. ‘Bittersweet’ is an immersive and addictive story that is cleverly crafted about first love and its dark side.

You can buy ‘Bittersweet’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

Margaret Smith is at the beach. It is a summer day unlike any other Margaret has ever known. The Smith family have left the town where they live and work and go to school and come to a place where the sky is blue, the sand is white, and the sound of the sea surrounds them. An ordinary family discovering the joy of getting away for the first time. Over the course of the coming decades, they will be transformed through their holiday experiences, each new destination a backdrop as the family grows and changes, love stories begin and end — and secrets are revealed.

What can I say about this book? I had so many conflicted feelings with it but when I read the final sentence, it left me in a sobbing mess.

The story is seen through the narrative of the Smith family and spans over a number of generations, as the family go different situations together, ranging from love, loss and deceit all neatly coming together when we reach the last page, apart from one element of the story that seemed to be missed, which I would have liked the author to go into more detail about.

Elizabeth is the mother of Margaret, Tommy and Robert and she never got over her first love, Bill Lacey, a man who is always in the background of her mind even though she married a lovely man called Jim. The story follows the family through the decades, as everyone finds their place in life particularly Margaret, Tommy and Robert and their children and spouses. I enjoyed the different narratives in the story and the time span but found myself occasionally getting lost in all the names and drama.

The story is beautifully written with engaging dialogue and the most vivid descriptions of beautiful destinations that sweep the reader away. A generational story that spans the decades and has an observant insight into ordinary lives when they escape their mundane lives and discover new places together.

‘Getting Away’ is a deeply poignant and moving story that makes you pull your loved ones closer.

You can buy ‘Getting Away’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

All I wanted was to help women become mothers. When I met Alice Monroe, we instantly connected. She was as passionate about motherhood as I was, and I couldn’t wait to support her through this life-changing experience. But the day that should have been Alice’s happiest, turned into a nightmare. And after Alice’s dreams were shattered, she blamed me. Even though there was nothing I could have done, she wanted to ruin me. I lost my business, my reputation. My world fell apart. Then, I discovered I was pregnant. That’s why we moved hundreds of miles away to the remote Derry countryside. Now, with this beautiful baby, we can have a fresh start. But then Alice sends me a message. She knows where we are. And I realise, it doesn’t matter how far we’ve moved, I am not safe from her. My baby is not safe.

Once a happy and established doula, Mel now spends her time reading blogs and social media mentally defending herself from a horrible situation when one of her clients lost their child and blamed Mel for the fatality. Alice had become Mel’s friend and when her baby died in birth, the finger of blame was pointed at Mel. Suddenly Mel found herself starting over life in a mobile home in Derry whilst her new home was being built. Cramped, pregnant, with her husband and little girl, Mel’s trying to move on with her life, but her past is constantly there reminding her of what went wrong and when strange things start to happen, particularly the reappearance of Alice, Mel and those around are judging her sanity.

I really enjoyed this story, the pace and the suspense throughout and the flashbacks to the past when Mel was a doula and her friendship with Alice, how close the pair were and tight their bond was, this really set the tone of the story. As it could be justified and understandable that Alice is out to make Mel’s life hell after losing her baby. The trolling on social media, the unexpected parcels and cards and constant reminders. I found myself feeling sympathetic towards Alice as losing a child is every parents nightmare. I liked Mel, I found myself relating to her as she counted down her pregnancy in a cramped space with a strange over familiar neighbour called Sheila constantly calling in under the guise of good intentions, but I found her irritating and nosy.

The story is tension filled with characters that are relatable, likeable and suspicious and for this, I found the book really kept me on my toes, and I found myself racing towards the final pages to see if I had successfully guessed Mel’s tormenters.

Compulsive and packed with Claire’s trademark colloquialisms and vivid descriptions of Northern Ireland, that made the book feel like home, ‘The Perfect Mother’ is another thrilling book from Claire Allan that was hard to put down.

You can buy ‘The Perfect Mother’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

I’ve since Brian speak on three or four occasions and ‘The One You Least Suspect’ is the first book that I’ve read by the author and this book was so good that I consumed it in one day!

Katie lives a quiet life. She likes her small Derry neighbourhood. She likes her job as a barmaid at O’Reillys. And she loves her daughter, Hope. But everything changes when she is approached by two detectives. They want Katie to tell them the things she hears at work. To become their informant. In this city, Katie knows the dangers of talking to the police. Yet with Hope’s safety at risk should she refuse, she is trapped between two impossible choices. Crossing the O’Reilly brothers could cost her everything. Her only chance of survival is if she can remain the one that they least suspect.

The story is seen through the narrative of young mother Katie, who lives on the breadline scraping by with cleaning shifts O’Reilly’s, a popular pub in the city with an interesting clientele. Katie doesn’t mind the job until one day, the police ask her to become an informant. They know all about her life, particularly her daughter Hope and as soon as Hope is mentioned, Katie has a battle of conscience. She knows what goes on in O’Reilly’s and prefers to turn a blind eye and not question where the blood comes from that she has to clean. But then Mark, the younger and somewhat gentler of the brothers shows an interest in Katie and her involvement in the pub, Katie is caught right and wrong, but mostly what’s right for Hope.

As a resident of Northern Ireland, I immediately sank into this thriller and was engrossed in the political and drug related feuds as gangs tried to keep their power and ownership of the streets whilst the vulnerable and innocent tried to make ends meet and keep their heads down. I loved the colloquialisms of the story, the setting as well as the characters. Katie was a woman after my own heart, her daughter is her world and she will everything in her power to make sure that she is looked after and provided for and when these simple things are challenged and threatened to be taken away from her, she has to think rethink her morals and conscience and you could see throughout the story, how hard she found it all.

The story is gritty and bloody, with gory scenes in it, that do make it difficult to read at times, particularly the treatment of women in parts. Brimming with tension, twists and dramas that pulled me in from the first page, ‘The One You Least Suspect’ is a fantastic tense crime thriller about power, authority and a battle of conscience that is powerfully written.

You can buy ‘The One Tou Least Suspect’ from Amazon and is available to buy from local bookshops.

Twenty years ago, a group of students each wrote themselves a letter – Dear Future Me – confiding their deepest dreams and their very darkest secrets. Now the letters, thought long discarded, have begun to drop through letterboxes. For some they will make them re-evaluate the decisions they’ve made, the person they could have been. For others, the letters could be deadly

This is the first book that I’ve read by Deborah and it was so easy to sink in and get lost in this story of deceit and discovery. The story is mostly seen from the perspective of Audrey, who’s best friend Miranda tragically takes her own life after receiving a letter from her teenage self. A project her school had conducted 20 years previous and now these letters were appearing in people’s lives making them question the paths in which they had taken, particularly Miranda as it had such horrific consequences. 
 
Audrey is determined to find out what resulted in her best friend taking her life and in doing so, discovers that Miranda’s life wasn’t quite as perfect as she was lead to believe and she questions the friendship that she had, as Miranda’s letter included some questionable information. Audrey is left to pick up the pieces with Miranda’s children looking after them whilst Miranda’s husband tries to cope, but she still makes time to catch up with her old classmates to ask about their teenage letters and their memories of Miranda at school. The story also includes letter from the other pupils and this gives an extra insight into Miranda and the fateful night from when her ex-boyfriend died. 
 
I really enjoyed the pace and drama of this story, Audrey is a great protagonist, her life never turned out how she wished for it and she lived in Miranda’s shadow. Destined for Cambridge, Audrey ended up becoming a cleaner to look after her little brother after their mother died, but she’s not resentful, she carries on and is determined that he will go further in life than her. 
 
Cleverly written and packed with secrets and twists that people thought would never be revealed, ‘Dear Future Me’ is a fast paced thriller about the consequences and the past can come back to haunt you.

You can buy ‘Dear Future Me’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

When twenty-year-old nursing student, Frances “Frankie” McGrath, hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on California’s idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different path for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the young men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed America. Frankie will also discover the true value of female friendship and the heartbreak that love can cause.

An era that I don’t know much about is the Vietnam War, so when I got the chance to read ‘The Women’ for my bookclub, I was intrigued to find out more and this book certainly provided a dramatic and harsh insight into the terrible war and its consequences during and after it ended.

The story is seen through the narrative of Frances, a young woman who after the death of her brother Finlay decides to follow in his footsteps and go to war and volunteer in the hospitals. It’s there that she’s exposed to horrific scenes of carnage, despair and conflict. Whilst Frankie tends to the injured, she makes friends with Ethel and Barb, 2 other nurses who take the young women under their wings and help her toughen up in the horrendous conditions. After spending a tour together, the women become firm friends and Ethel and Barb are always there for Frankie when things go wrong. When she returns home, Frankie finds that she is unable to talk about the things she witnessed as well as the PTSD she has suffered as her parents’ told society that she went away to Florence, and they refuse to talk about the sights she saw. Frankie finds it difficult to adjust to the new life and finds solace in alcohol as it helps her with the flash backs and night terrors and cope with people who believe a nurse didn’t witness combat so she couldn’t be affected that badly.

This story is a hard one, although it’s called ‘The Women’, the narrative is solely from Frankie, as she is the voice of the thousands of nurses who were not acknowledged for their work during the Vietnam War and it does make for frustrating and upsetting reading how much Frankie is denied by others who argue that because she was not on the frontline, then she wasn’t at war.

Frankie is an interesting character whose actions were mainly stemmed by the men in her life, going to war because of her brother, she’s strong willed but unfortunately, she’s attracted to the wrong men and her life is filled with heartache when the man that she loved called Rye is called in combat and she finds it hard to move on without him. Although PTSD wasn’t recognised back then, it’s obvious that Frankie was deeply affected by what she was exposed to, not only the soldiers she tended to but the innocent villagers that were caught up in the middle of it all.

This was the first book that I’ve read by Kristin Hannah, and I thought it to be a beautifully written and fantastically researched story. The vivid descriptions of the war, the horror of the conditions and the treatment of people made for gripping, sad and upsetting reading.

A story of love, loss and recognition, ‘The Women’ is a powerfully written story that stays with the reader long after they’ve reached the final page.

You can buy ‘The Women’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

Pete never wanted another child. Before baby Erin was born, they were happy. If Natalie hadn’t got pregnant, he would never have done what he did. Natalie knows things have been difficult since the surprise arrival of Erin. Life with Pete and their two other children – Emily and Zadie – has been balancing on a knife-edge. Now their home is full of guests at a party Natalie didn’t want to throw – and she’s about to reach breaking point.
But so is her family. Because everyone has a secret that they’ve been hiding and when Erin suddenly disappears everyone becomes a suspect. Surely no one here would want to harm their baby? But after the events of the party there are plenty of people who would want to hurt Natalie. Including her husband…

To be honest, when started reading this book I wasn’t sure if I could read it as the beginning is quite traumatic and sad but I powered on, and in the end I found myself gripped by this story.

The story is seen through the narrative of couple Natalie and Pete, whose lives have been turned upside down by an unexpected pregnancy. When Erin enters their lives, she’s a difficult little baby that Natalie strugggles to connect with thus making a divide between her and Pete as she also struggles with her emotions. The story focues heavily on the stress of a new baby, the new emotions and stresses that come with it, as Pete and Natalie drift apart and the older daughters become almost invisible. Natalie becomes resentful of others especially her best friend Eve, who’s really connect with Erin.

As the story progresses, we see people struggling with secrets and lies and when every parents nightmare comes to life, with little Erin going missing. There are a lot of suspicous characters that could have commited the crime and these people reallly keep the reader on their toes as they try to solve the crime.

A story that is reflective of the real pressures of a new baby and the struggles they create, ‘The Mistake’ is a domestic, psychlogical thriller where everyone is a suspect and I found myself racing to the end page to find the culprit!

You can buy ‘The Mistake’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.