Book review: The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 13 September 2012 by Michael Joseph, 505 pages.

Description: Helen Walsh doesn't believe in fear – it's just a thing invented by men to get all the money and good job – and yet she's sinking. Her work as a Private Investigator has dried up, her flat has been repossessed and now some old demons have resurfaced.

Not least in the form of her charming but dodgy ex-boyfriend Jay Parker, who shows up with a missing persons case. Money is tight – so tight Helen's had to move back in with her elderly parents – and Jay is awash with cash. The missing person is Wayne Diffney, the 'Wacky One' from boyband Laddz. He’s vanished from his house in Mercy Close and it's vital that he's found – Laddz have a sell-out comeback gig in five days' time.

Things ended messily with Jay. And she’s never going back there. Besides she has a new boyfriend now, the very sexy detective Artie Devlin and it's all going well, even though his ex-wife isn't quite 'ex' enough and his teenage son hates her. But the reappearance of Jay is stirring up all kinds of stuff she thought she'd left behind.

Playing by her own rules, Helen is drawn into a dark and glamorous world, where her worst enemy is her own head and where increasingly the only person she feels connected to is Wayne, a man she's never even met.

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Book review: Killer Heels by Rebecca Chance

My edition: Paperback, published in 2012 by Simon & Schuster, 470 pages.

Description: From the suburbs of Luton to the avenues of Manhattan, starry-eyed fashionista Coco Raeburn has worked her way up the ladder. She will do anything to get her own editorship at a top fashion magazine - even if it means starving herself half to death.

Her idol is ruthless boss Victoria Glossop, editor at top fashion magazine Style. She has her own ambitions and nothing will come between her and her goal - at least not until an enigmatic stranger comes into her life and thaws the ice queen in the most wicked way psosible.

Svengali Jacob Dupleix, media magnate and owner of Style, is one of the most powerful men in New York and London. But is the glittering empire he has built about to collapse due to a dangerous liasion...?

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Book review: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

My edition: Paperback, published in 2011 by Bloomsbury UK, 336 pages.

Description: 1970s Afghanistan:

Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him.

But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives...

Since its publication in 2003, The Kite Runner has sold eight million copies worldwide.

Through Khaled Hosseini's brilliant writing, a previously unknown part of the world was brought to life.

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Book review: The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 27 September 2012 by Penguin Books, 516 pages.

Description: In 1916 French artist Edouard LeFèvre leaves his wife Sophie to fight at the Front. When her town falls into German hands, his portrait of Sophie stirs the heart of the local Kommandant and causes her to risk everything - her family, reputation and life - in the hope of seeing her true love one last time.

Nearly a century later and Sophie's portrait is given to Liv by her young husband shortly before his sudden death. Its beauty speaks of their short life together, but when the painting's dark and passion-torn history is revealed, Liv discovers that the first spark of love she has felt since she lost him is threatened...

In The Girl You Left Behind two young women, separated by a century, are united in their determination to fight for the thing they love most - whatever the cost.

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Book review: The Meryl Streep Movie Club by Mia March

My edition: Paperback, published in June 2012 by Simon & Schuster, 325 pages.

Description: When Lolly Weller unexpectedly summons her two nieces to come and stay with her and her daughter Kat at the pituresque Three Captains' Inn, no one is really sure what her 'secret announcement' will be.

But what Isabel, reeling from her husband's affair, her sister June, a single mother haunted by her past, and Kat, whose seemingly perfect life has reached a crossroads, don't realise is just how much the next few weeks will change all of their lives.

But not before they have fulfilled Lolly's wish; for them to all spend their final few Friday evenings together, sharing the joy and pain of the Meryl Streep Movie Club, a place where the answers to all of life's questions are just a handful of popcorn away . . .
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