Author: bookafterbook

Publication: 20th June 2024 – Simon & Schuster UK

She only wants three things. He isn’t one of them… 

Dumped by her cheating ex, fired from her dream job, about to lose her flat: Clementine Monroe is not having a good day. So when her sisters get her drunk and suggest reviving a childhood ritual called the breakup spell, she doesn’t see the harm in it.
 
But now Clemmie has accidentally ruined a funeral, had her first one-night stand, and she’s stuck with a new job she definitely doesn’t want – spending six weeks alone with the gorgeous and very-off-limits rock star, Theo Eliott. 
 
He’s the most famous man on the planet. Her life’s a disaster. When it comes to love, Clemmie is learning you should be careful what you wish for…

AMAZON

WATERSTONES

I have read some of Laura Wood’s young adult novels, especially I enjoyed her historical romance series, The Agency for Scandal, so I was excited to read her adult debut and I can’t tell you how much I loved this book. Under Your Spell is, without any doubt, at the top of my favourite books of the year and one of the best romcom I’ve read in a while. I adored the characters, the story, the setting, and the writing is exceptional.

The protagonist of the story is Clementine “Clemmie” Monroe. As the daughter of famous rockstar Ripp Harris, she’s always been under the spotlight, especially because she and her sisters Serena and Lil were born almost at the same time from three different women and were raised together in a big house (without their rockstar father). Whenever things were bad, they did a breakup spell, but they haven’t done it since they were teenagers, when Clemmie had her heart broken. Following another break up, the loss of her job and soon of her house, Clemmie and her sisters perform another breakup spell and make three wishes. 

After a one-night stand with a stranger she met at a funeral, Clemmie is offered a very well-paid job by her sister Serena. Famous rockstar Theo Elliot is two years behind delivering his new album so his record company has organized for him to stay in a family cottage in Northumberland for six weeks, away from everyone and everything, and they need someone to babysit him and make sure that he works. With no other prospects in sight, Clemmie accepts the “babysitting” job, after all, how hard can it be? If only Theo wasn’t so handsome and charming and she wasn’t so attracted to him…

I couldn’t put down this book. Clemmie and Theo’s slow burn romance, their witty banter, the painful revelations about their past, the hilarious interruptions from their families kept me glued to the pages. I loved these two characters and how relatable and authentic they feel. She is introvert, bookish, with a love for vampire drama tv series, Chaucer and Enid Blyton, while he is honest, with a big heart and currently rediscovering his love for carbs and sugar.

Under Your Spell is a brilliant, funny, and addictive story of romance and family, but the author also addresses themes of mental health, grief, and parental neglect and it’s a story I will be thinking about for a long time (and probably rereading many times)!

A huge thank you to Simon & Schuster UK and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of this wonderful novel.

Laura Wood is a bestselling and acclaimed author of mostly children’s and young adult novels. Under Your Spell is her first adult novel. With a PhD in 19th-century literature, Laura lives in Warwickshire, England, with her husband, and their dog, Bea.

Publication: 6th June 2024 – Penguin Books UK

From the moment Lily Harper arrives at a remote retreat on the breath-taking Scilly Isles, she is itching to get back to civilisation – and her thriving business.

Slowing down simply isn’t in her vocabulary, and so she quickly clashes with the gorgeous but dour Sam who runs the retreat.

Just as Lily is about to give up and leave, disaster strikes, and she is involved in an incident that changes her perspective on everything.

Lily is no longer sure she wants to return to the life she thought she loved. But will she have the courage to give the retreat, and Sam, a second chance?

AMAZON

WATERSTONES

Lily Harper is a workaholic and high-achiever with her own company, that promotes hand-made products, and little time for herself and for her family. After passing out in her own office and urged by her personal assistant and her brother-in-law, Lily decides that maybe it’s time to take a break so she books a two-week stay in a resort on the Scilly Islands. Except, where she expected luxury, massages, and time to make the occasional phone and video call for work, she finds a work in progress. The cottage where she will be staying is the only one finished and the only person working at the resort is the grumpy yet handsome owner, Sam Teague. With no phone signal or internet on the island there is no way she is going to survive, yet alone relax, for two weeks. Except, as she spends time drawing the beautiful Cornish landscape and helping Sam decorate the cottages, she finds herself finally relaxing, and Sam may not be as grumpy and unapproachable as she initially thought.

Second Chance Summer is my first Phillipa Ashley novel and what initially attracted me to it is the setting. Cornwall is at the top of my bucket list of places to visit and I love reading about it in novels and the author’s beautiful and detailed descriptions only increased my desire to visit it (and probably stay there forever!). While the setting was my favourite part of the novel, I also really enjoyed the story and the characters. There is romance, of course, but also friendship, family, self-discovery and new beginnings, with also a touch of intrigue thanks to ghost legends and threatening messages. Lily and Sam are two wonderful and well-developed characters, both with past experiences that still torment them. The two weeks they spend together forces not only to face their problems, but also the attraction they feel for each other.

Second Chance Summer is a well-written, heart-warming, and entertaining novel and it introduces me to an author whose past (and future) books I am already planning to read!

A huge thank you to Penguin Books and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of this novel.

Phillipa Ashley is a Sunday Times, Amazon and Audible best-selling author of uplifting romantic fiction.

After studying English at Oxford University, she worked as a copywriter and journalist before turning her hand to writing. Since then, her novels have sold well over a million copies and have been translated into numerous languages.

Phillipa lives in an English village with her husband, has a grown-up daughter and loves nothing better than walking the Lake District hills and swimming in Cornish coves.

Publication: 20th June 2024 – Michael Joseph

He’d once called her dangerous. And he had been right.

She was a spy. A warrior. A weapon.

Aya has returned home at last.

But she is not the same person who left Tala all those months ago.

And Tala isn’t the same either.

The threat of a war that could destroy the realm continues to grow and she is the only one who can save it.

Because she is also the Second Saint.

But there are those that see her as a pawn and want to use her powers for their own gain. Aya is about to learn that the real danger is closer to home than she ever could have imagined.

AMAZON

WATERSTONES

The Curse of Saints was one of my favourite books last year so I can’t tell you how much I’ve been waiting for its sequel, The Curse of the Sins, to come out and it was worth the wait. Engrossing, action-packed, and full of surprises, I couldn’t put it down.

The Curse of the Sins picks up right after the ending of the first book. After discovering the truth about their queen and her plans for the Second Saint, Aya and Will return to Tala with every intention to stop her. Once enemies, now lovers, they have to pretend that nothing’s changed during their stay in Rinnia, while trying to save their realm from war.

As the Second Saint, Aya is popular now. Everyone expects great things and power from her and she feels the pressure of these expectations, especially as she keeps playing a game of pretending with everyone, except Will. Oh, the romance between these two was perfect! Swoony, sexy, and full of chemistry and tension that kept me completely absorbed.

In the meantime, in Rinnia, Aedion must face responsibilities and challenges as the new king. He’s always known he was heir to the throne, but he didn’t expect to kill his uncle to do it. With so many enemies around him, he doesn’t know who to trust, and he is keeping secrets that, if discovered, could put everyone in danger.

The Curse of Sins is even better than the first book. As the first book in the trilogy, The Curse of Saints focuses more on world building and introduction to the characters and the plot. The Curse of Sins brings it all together, adding exciting romance, a bit of drama, and many more twists and turns, with a fantastic and explosive cliffhanger that makes me count down the days until the third book.

A huge thank you to MichaelJoseph and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of this fantastic novel.

Kate Dramis is an Atlanta-based writer whose obsession with fantasy worlds and escaping into a good love story eventually drove her to chase her dreams of being an author. She is the author of the instant #2 Sunday Times Best Seller, The Curse of Saints.

When she’s not busy writing banter that makes her laugh in an embarrassingly loud fashion, you can find her impulse-booking her latest travel adventure, snuggling with her dogs and cat, or tormenting her growing legion of readers on TikTok and Instagram with vague book teasers.

Publication: 28th May 2024 – Headline Eternal

When former naval captain, Harry Kincaid, is left in the lurch with his flighty older sister’s three unruly children, he hasn’t a clue how to handle it. Desperate, and prepared to pay whatever it takes, he turns to Miss Prentice’s School for Young Ladies for an emergency governess who can get his formerly ordered house running shipshape again.

After a strict and miserable upbringing, fledgling governess Georgie Rowe doesn’t believe that children should be seen and not heard. She believes that childhood should be filled with laughter, adventure, and discovery (. . . everything hers wasn’t). Thankfully, the three Pendleton children are already delightfully bohemian and instantly embrace her unconventional approach. However, their staid, stickler-for-the-rules uncle, is another matter entirely.

Georgie and Harry are soon butting heads over their differences, but as time passes, their attraction soon becomes undeniable and, after all, all’s fair in love and war…

AMAZON

WATERSTONES

When I read a novel by Virginia Heath I always expect a good dose of entertainment, romance, and intrigue and All’s Fair in Love and War didn’t disappoint.

Sixteen-year-old Georgina “Georgie” Rowe is left by her odious stepfather on the steps of Miss Prentice’s School for Young Ladies where she will learn to become a governess. Six years later, all her friends have found jobs, while she’s just failed her thirty-third job interview because she simply can’t help voicing her more progressive teaching method to the parents.

Captain Henry Kincaid comes home from a long day of work to discover that her free-spirit sister has left her three young children in his care while she is off on an adventure with her husband in Egypt. Desperate for help, he turns to Miss Prentice and offers Georgie a job on the spot. Right from the beginning, they argue on their different ideas not only about teaching, but about everything. After a troubled childhood spent following her stepfather from navy base to navy base, Georgie wants to make sure that the children have the care and stability that she’s never had and she prefers children to have fun while learning. Henry, on the other hand, was raised by a stern Admiral who instilled in him a sense of duty and discipline and, following a romantic mishap that almost put a stop to his rise in the Navy, he has put his job in front of everything else, including his family. Being a Navy man, he believes in time management and order and prefers a more traditional and strict kind of schooling and life. Of course, the more time they spend together, the more their differences pale against the attraction they feel for each other.

If you are looking for a witty and romantic read, I can’t recommend All’s Fair in Love and War enough: there is slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, an adorable dog who often gets in trouble, and three energetic and charming children who know how to create havoc!

A huge thank you to Headline Eternal and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.

When Virginia Heath was a little girl it took her ages to fall asleep, so she made up stories in her head to help pass the time while she was staring at the ceiling. As she got older, the stories became more complicated, sometimes taking weeks to get to the happy ending. Then one day, she decided to embrace the insomnia and start writing them down. Twenty-one books and two Romantic Novel of the Year Award nominations later, and it still takes her forever to fall asleep.

Publication: 23rd May 2024 – Hodder & Stoughton

The brilliant third novel from the acclaimed author of THE COLOURS OF DEATH.

During a remote meeting, a Portuguese official watches from Lisbon as his colleague, Emanuel Francisco, a diplomat based in London’s Portuguese embassy, dies of what looks to be a heart attack. When no one comes into the room to Francisco’s aid, he tries frantically to contact the consulate to get immediate help.

No one picks up.

When local police finally arrive hours later, they walk into a disturbingly silent and horrific scene. Everyone inside the building is dead.

Inspector Isabel Reis, a Gifted Inspector with Portugal’s PolÍcia Judiciária, has developed a reputation for closing sensitive cases involving powerful people. When the gravity of what has happened in London is revealed, she’s called up to assist the Met’s CID in the investigation.

Two things quickly become very clear: this was a mass killing, and only one person escaped. The person the embassy was secretly protecting within its walls.

Now Isabel must quiet her turbulent mind and come face to face with a killer more ruthless than she has ever seen before . . . The answers lie with the sole survivor.

AMAZON

WATERSTONES

The third book in the gripping series that sees as protagonist Inspector Isabel Reis of the Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria is as exciting and immersive as the previous two books. Set in a world where some people are Gifted with powers of telepathy and telekinesis, Isabel is one of them. From her native Lisbon, Isabel and her partner Aleksander Vonorov travel to London to help the local police in a mysterious and diplomatically sensitive case. During a video call, the Portuguese ambassador in London dies suddenly and no one is answering the phones in the consulate. The English police can’t enter it without a delegate from the Portuguese government and that’s why detective Reis and Vonorov are on their way to London. When they finally enter the consulate, the scene in front of them is quite disturbing: all the people inside are dead. What’s more, someone was hiding inside the consulate and they managed to escape. As they try to figure out what happened inside the consulate and what happened to the only survivor of the attack, Isabel must also deal with the aftermath of a previous investigation and the growth of her gift.

Broken Oaths is another brilliant addition to this well-written and captivating series by Patricia Marques. The case Isabel is working is fascinating, thrilling, and full of twists. Unlike the previous books, Isabel is not the one in charge of the investigation, but she must follow the lead of the English police, who doesn’t seem to trust her and her powers. While her powers become stronger, she also feels isolated and more vulnerable as she keeps secrets from Vonorov and her friends.

Part mystery, part paranormal, Broken Oaths kept me completely immersed and I couldn’t put it down and it left me anxiously waiting for the next book!

A huge thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of this fantastic novel.

Half-Angolan and half-Portuguese, Patricia was born in Portugal but moved to England when she was eight. As well as the MA in Creative Writing from City she holds a BA in Creative Writing from Roehampton. She lives in London and The Colours of Death was her first novel. House of Silence is her second.

Publication: 23rd May 2024 – HarperCollins UK

As one of the daughters of an English Earl and his Indian Mistress, Anya Marleigh has defied Regency society’s rules by playing her sitar and singing beautifully for Queen Charlotte at the court of George III.

When she comes into an unexpected inheritance, her change of fortune comes with a catch ― she must marry before her twenty-fifth birthday or the money will go to her trustee ― the infuriating but devilishly sexy Lord Damian Ashton, who also has the power to approve her choice of husband.

As Anya begins to attract the wrong sort of marriage suitor, Lord Ashton is the only thing standing between her and a fate worse than death. But does he have his own reasons for hindering her happy ever after …?

AMAZON

WATERSTONES

The third season of Bridgerton left me in quite a reading slump and I couldn’t settle on anything to read until I started Unladylike Rules of Attraction, which kept me so engrossed that I read it in one sitting without even noticing it was the middle of the night by the time I finished it.

This is the second book in the Marleigh Sisters series which revolves around the three illegitimate daughters of an Earl and an Indian woman. After the death of their parents in India, the three sisters were brought to England to be raised by their evil stepmother and stepbrother and, when they grew up, they went their separate ways.

Now, Anya is a singer at the court of Queen Charlotte. She’s been left a huge inheritance by Dowager Countess Budleigh who preferred her to her own children. The only problem is that she will inherit the money only if she marries before her twenty-fifth birthday, which is only four months away. Until then, the money will remain in the hands of a trustee, lord Damian Ashton, a distant cousin raised in Jamaica, who came into title only after the sudden and mysterious deaths of his other relatives, and who will need to approve Anys’s choice of a husband. Anya is not short of suitors, but she and Damian don’t exactly get along, despite their attraction to each other. Also, the Budleigh family has no intention of standing by as someone else inherits the money that they feel should go to them and are determined to do anything, including accusations of murder, to get it.

I really like the characters of Anya and Damian. Both must deal with their own share of prejudice because of their origins and both have created their own fortune. Anya is clever and compassionate. She could use the inheritance to earn independence for herself and her protégée Trixie, but can she marry someone she is not remotely attracted to? And why does she keep thinking about Damian? Damian cares only about one person in his life, his brother Jeremy, but he intends to make sure that Anya gets what it’s hers.

Unladylike Rules of Attraction is a delightful and witty mix of romance and intrigue with a cast of fantastic characters and I am looking forward to the next book!

A huge thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.

Amita Murray lives in London. Just to keep things interesting, she writes in two genres: Regency romance and contemporary mystery. Her Arya Winters mysteries are published by Agora and are under a TV option. Her mystery novel Thirteenth Night won the Exeter Novel Prize in 2022. A collection called Marmite and Mango Chutney won the SI Leeds Prize in 2016 and her short story “A Heist in Three Acts” comes out in Ellery Queen Magazine in 2022.

Publication: 28th May 2024 – Bloom Books

From bestselling indie author and TikTok favorite Laura Thalassa comes the next installment of a witch fantasy set in the world of the Bargainer series. Only the dangerously handsome Memnon the Cursed can help Selene find the answers she seeks…if she doesn’t lose her heart first.

No one told witch Selene Bowers having a soul mate would be so difficult. Nor did they warn her that he might be a vengeful, ancient sorcerer who would frame her for murder, force her to remember a past life he swears she lived, and then coerce her into an unbreakable marriage pact. But that’s exactly what happens the night of the Samhain Ball, when Selene finds herself in a jail cell.

After waking from enchanted sleep, Memnon swore to discover why Selene betrayed him long ago. But when his soul mate’s memories return, the truth reveals something else entirely. Horrified by his own actions and desperate to make amends, Memnon offers Selene the unthinkable: a magic bond that will give her full control over his will. And Selene is desperate enough to accept it.

But other enemies still haunt Henbane Coven, Selene’s magical academy, and they’ve taken a keen interest in her. If she wants to stop them, she’ll need Memnon’s help. But partnering with the sorcerer is a tricky business, especially when he’s dead set on winning her heart. And that can’t happen…because the bond controlling him will break the moment she falls in love with him.

AMAZON

Bespelled starts off right after the events of Bewitched, in which twenty-something witch Selene Bowers wakes up the powerful Memnon from a two-thousand years old curse only to discover that she is his soul mate and wife and he is out for revenge. Now, after recovering all her memories, Selene remembers her past life as Roxi and the events that led to the curse. Discovering that Selene is not the cause of his fall and eager to prove himself to her, Memnon offers her a magic bond that gives her control over him and that will be broken only when she falls in love with him. But can she really trust him? Also, someone is still kidnapping and killing witches on campus and Selena is determined to find out the truth and stop the murders once and for all.

I must admit that I enjoyed this book more than the first. I liked how Selene develops and is more dependent and stronger and how, even though she finds herself in danger many times, she is determined to protect the witches from being murdered. Her relationship with Memnon is still full of banter and fun and steamy, but now she is the one with the upper hand and the power, although he doesn’t mind obeying her orders. 

Bespelled is action-packed and full of twists. There is a swoony romance, there is horrifying murder, a morally gray handsome hero that doesn’t mind groveling for the woman he loves, a kickass heroine and, once again, an unexpected ending that makes me really look forward to the next book.

A huge thank you to Bloom Books and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.

Laura Thalassa is the author of over a dozen paranormal and fantasy romance novels. She fell in love with stories as a child and decided she never wanted to escape them. She lives in sunny southern California with her husband and children. When not writing, she can be found reading about lost civilizations, splashing with her kids in the Pacific, and hoarding chocolate for the apocalypse.

Publication: 15th May 2024 – Storm Publishing

A government aide kidnapped, a French diplomat murdered, a killer to uncover…

When mystery writer Marius Quin and his sleuthing partner Lady Bella Montague are hired by a secretive stranger to find a missing civil servant, they immediately set to work. Ernest Castleton was taken at gunpoint days earlier, but with the help of his distraught fiancée, Marius and Bella uncover a vital clue. Ernest hid a cryptic letter in the British Museum, and it sends the intrepid duo on a trail that stretches from the centre of London all the way to the English coast.

The investigation takes on a new twist when they arrive at the home of the British Foreign Secretary only to find a French diplomat murdered in the Grand Hall of the palatial property…

But who pushed Monsieur Rochefort to his death, and what does it have to do with Ernest Castleton’s disappearance? Marius and Bella must choose from a nefarious spy, a double-dealing diplomat and any number of spoilt aristocrats if they wish to catch the killer. With the clock ticking and only twenty-four hours left before the suspects disperse, they must call upon their every skill to stop more innocent people from dying…

A fast, fresh and fun 1920s murder mystery which combines the feel of a classic spy novel with a twisting whodunit, The Castleton Affair will leave you guessing until the very last chapter.

AMAZON

The adventures of mystery writer Marius Quin and his friend / first love Lady Bella Montague continue as they embark on their third investigation. They are hired by a mysterious and quite sinister man to find Ernest Castleton, a civil servant working in the British Foreign Office, who was kidnapped a few days earlier. With the help of his fiancée and a few clues left in a book in the British Museum, Marius and Bella manage to find and rescue Ernest, only to find out that the truth is more complicated.

After managing to get invited to the country house of the British Foreign Secretary while he is hosting a French delegation for a super secret meeting, Marius (who must pretend to be Bella’s very boring fiancée) and Bella, try to uncover the truth, but they get involved in a murder investigation when one of the French delegates is found murdered. Will they find the killer before it’s too late?

I love this series. It is witty, entertaining, and full of twists, even though The Castleton Affair is a bit different from the previous two books. It’s more of a spy novel, with lots of intrigue, but I enjoyed it as much as the others.

Marius and Bella are a fantastic duo of detectives, but my favourite character remains Percy, Marius’s basset hound whose loyalties lay with whoever gives him food.

The story is very well-written and full of detailed historical facts. I enjoyed the subplot about Marius’s father’s mysterious disappearance and I am looking forward to reading more about it in the next books.  Conspiracies, deception, secrets, and twists kept me completely engrossed in this intriguing third book in the Marius Quin Mystery series (which can also be easily read as a standalone) and I am looking forward to the next one!

A huge thank you to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.

I’m a Welsh-Irish-Englishman originally from South London but now living in Burgos, a beautiful city in the north of Spain, with my French-Spanish wife and our two young children.

Writing has always been my passion. It was my favourite half-an-hour a week at primary school, and I started on my first, truly abysmal book as a teenager. So it wasn’t a difficult decision to study literature at university which led to an MA in Creative Writing.

I grew up in a crime-fiction-mad family and had made a few clumsy attempts at writing one over the years before coming up with the idea for my contemporary whodunits “The Izzy Palmer Mysteries”. My second series, the 1920s-set “Lord Edgington Investigates…”, has been a great success, with each of the books becoming a bestseller. I have a new series called “The Marius Quin Mysteries” coming in November 2023.

If you’d like to tell me what you think about my detectives, my writing or the world at large, I’d love to hear from you, so feel free to get in touch at www.benedictbrown.net where you can also download my free mystery novellas and join my readers’ club.

Publishing: 9th May 2024 – Usborne

When American teen Evan Bright came to live with her long-lost father – the actual king of England – she instantly became the most-hated member of the royal family. The vicious clickbait articles and backstabbing new relatives are tough enough, but now she’s facing much scarier threats.
First there are protesters outside the palace gates and creepy messages. But when an armed intruder accesses the grounds to attack Evan and her boyfriend Kit, she starts to believe that someone within the palace is plotting her downfall.

They say what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger…but what if it’s the royal family who wants you dead?

AMAZON

WATERSTONES

I expected Royal Scandal to be as good as the first book, Royal Blood, but it’s even better. I don’t know how many times I gasped in surprise or held my breath while I was reading. The twists, the surprises, and that shocking mind-blowing ending that has me already counting down the days until the next book will come out.

In Royal Blood, the entire world found out that seventeen-year-old Evangeline Bright is the illegitimate daughter of the King of England. Now, everyone seems to have accepted Evan’s presence in Buckingham Palace, she has established some kind of relationship with her step-sister Maisie, the future queen, and she’s found love with the queen’s nephew, Kit. She is looking forward to spending Christmas with her new family, but, of course, things will be far from easy. First of all, on their arrival at Sandringham, there is a group of angry protesters outside the gates. And, then, Prince Benedict, who caused her so much trouble and almost got her arrested for murder in the first book, makes his return and Evan is sure he out for revenge. Add a gossip website that seems to know everything that is going on in the royal family, strange voices that make her doubt about her mental health, and the fact that Kit may be hiding something from her, Evan has sure a lot on her plate…

Action-packed, thrilling, and entertaining, I can’t recommend this novel (and this series enough). I love the author’s writing, which keeps me completely immersed, and Evan is a fantastic protagonist: she would do anything to protect the people she loves and often this leads her into dangers that kept me on the edge of my seat. I surely didn’t expect that surprising ending and I cannot wait to see what is coming next!

A huge thank you to Usborne and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.

Aimée Carter is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the award-winning author of more than a dozen books, including the Goddess Test series, the Blackcoat Rebellion series, and the Simon Thorn series for middle-grade readers, now a #1 internationally bestselling series under the title Die Erben der Animox.

Publication: 9th May 2024 – Orion

Sometimes finding your place in the world is the greatest puzzle of all…

Clayton Stumper is an enigma.

He might be twenty-five years old, but he dresses like your grandad and drinks sherry like your aunt.

Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by the sharpest minds in the British Isles and finds himself amongst the last survivors of a fading institution.

When the esteemed crossword compiler, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle to him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for his future.

Yet as Clay begins to unpick the clues, he uncovers something even the Fellowship have never been able to solve – and it’s a secret that will change everything…

AMAZON

WATERSTONES

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers is a delightful debut novel. I enjoyed the characters and their stories, the puzzles to solve (although I can’t say I was able to solve any of the puzzles), and the different timelines that made for an engrossing read.

The story is told from two different perspectives. Clayton Stumper is twenty-five-years old but, based on his clothes and his tastes, you wouldn’t know it. He was raised by the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers after he was found by its founder, Pippa Allsbrook, right after his birth. He doesn’t know anything about his biological parents and, even though he found a family in the members of the Fellowship, he always wondered. After Pippa’s death, Clayton finds out that she left him a series of puzzles that will lead him to the true identity of his parents. All he has to do is follow the clues that will take him first to London where he meets an old friend of Pippa and finds a new one for him. And, as we follow Clayton on his quest towards the truth, we also learn about Pippa, how she founded the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, about the challenges, the dreams, the secrets, and the relationships that form and grow over the years.

I liked how the narrative alternates between two timelines and I loved the character of Pippa, a strong woman who always knows what she wants, and the character of Clayton, who never felt like he belonged, but now has the chance to find what he’s been looking for. 

An emotional and entertaining read, The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers is a story that is very easy to love!

A huge thank you to Orion and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.

Samuel Burr is a TV producer who has worked on popular factual shows including the BAFTA-nominated Secret Life of 4-Year-Olds. Samuel’s writing was selected for Penguin’s WriteNow scheme and in 2021 he graduated from the Faber Academy. He previously studied at Westminster Film School.