Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Marlene @ReadingReality and is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

This seemed like a great feature to jump onboard with to help me avoid my interminably long monthly posts of all that I’ve bought (and NOT read). So here goes!

Kindle Purchases

Ship It by Evie Blum

Still healing from the loss of her father and dealing with the aftermath of a rocky relationship, Sarah is more than ready to jump into her new career in a Silicon Valley startup. Heading out to celebrate the end of the pandemic and her new job with friends seemed like a good idea last night. But as she wakes the morning after, staring into the face of impulsivity itself—a sexy guy clutching his pillow the way he clutched her the night before—she takes the easy way out and slips silently into the San Jose morning, determined to put him, and any other distractions, behind her.

After years of working towards his PhD in computer science, Nathan’s ready for a change and jumps at the chance to join his best friend’s tech startup. It’s all-consuming and cut-throat at times, but he’s ready for anything. Anything, that is, except discovering Sarah, the charming woman he spent one unforgettable night with, works at the company that just promoted him to the C-suite.

Despite their best efforts to keep their relationship professional, things heat up. But secrets come out—including Nathan’s entanglement with his ex—and Sarah and Nathan must ask themselves whether their particular brand of startup can succeed in such uncertain conditions. Will the connection they’re building go to market, or like most startups, will the obstacles along the way cause them to fail?

Sexy might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you hear “high tech,” but the chemistry between Sarah and Nathan will make you think again.

Wet Paint by Chloe Ashby

Since the death of her best friend Grace, twenty-six-year-old Eve has learned to keep everything and everyone at arm’s length. Safe in her detachment, she scrapes along waiting tables and cleaning her shared flat in exchange for cheap rent, finding solace in her small routines.

But when a chance encounter at work brings her past thundering into her present, Eve becomes consumed by painful memories of Grace. And soon her precariously maintained life begins to unravel: she loses her job, gets thrown out of her flat, and risks pushing away the one decent man who cares about her.

Taking up life-modelling to pay the bills, Eve lays bare her body but keeps hidden the mounting chaos inside her head. When her self-destructive urges spiral out of control, she’s forced to confront the traumatic event that changed the course of her life, and to finally face her grief and guilt.

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

The honeymoon of a lifetime . . . with her sworn enemy!

Olive is always unlucky; her identical twin sister Ami, on the other hand, is probably the luckiest person in the world. While she’s about to marry her dream man, Olive is forced to play nice with her nemesis: the best man, Ethan.

Yet Olive’s luck may be on the turn . . . When the entire wedding – except for Olive and Ethan – gets food poisoning, there’s an all-expenses-paid honeymoon in Hawaii up for grabs. Putting their mutual hatred aside, Olive and Ethan head for paradise. But when Olive runs into her future boss, the little white lie she tells him spirals out of control.

Forced to play loving newlyweds, she and Ethan find themselves in closer proximity than they ever expected. Soon, Olive finds that maybe she doesn’t mind pretending. In fact, she’s beginning to feel kind of . . . lucky.

The Unwanted Dead by Chris Lloyd

Paris, Friday 14th June 1940.

The day the Nazis march into Paris, making headlines around the globe.

Paris police detective Eddie Giral – a survivor of the last World War – watches helplessly on as his world changes forever.

But there is something he still has control over. Finding whoever is responsible for the murder of four refugees. The unwanted dead, who no one wants to claim.

To do so, he must tread carefully between the Occupation and the Resistance, between truth and lies, between the man he is and the man he was.

All the while becoming whoever he must be to survive in this new and terrible order descending on his home…

Runaway by Katie Cross

Stella Marie:

I didn’t ask for my life to be uprooted, but won’t sit by while my creepy ex-boss destroys everything—himself included.

Except . . . there’s only one person that can help me disappear for a while, and I’m pretty sure he groans every time he sees me calling.

Being Mark Bailey’s accountant isn’t easy.

When Mark helps me escape into his mountain world for a while, the very last thing I expect is to fall hard. Now ghosts from my past are following and I’m not sure there’s a happy-ever-after waiting at the end of this nightmare.

Mark:

My accountant is the most frustrating woman on the planet.

She infuriates me every time we speak, but I will never, ever fire her because she is the only thing standing between me and utter bankruptcy

Now I’m not so sure I know her after all. The woman that arrives on my doorstep in the middle of the night is surprisingly bright, beautiful, and frightened.

Being the good guy in the past hasn’t gotten me anywhere, but this time, I have a good feeling about Stella Marie. Which is why I’m happy to step up when that psycho ex-boss of hers tracks her to my doorstep.

No one is getting near Stella Marie while I’m here.

The Ex next Door by Jo Platt

Thank you, n(ex)t.

After burst pipes destroy Esme’s city-centre flat, she temporarily relocates to a delightful and small cottage in a village on the edge of town. The change is a big one, but Esme soon settles in and, as the art gallery she co-owns with her business partner, David, continues to thrive, life is sweet.

Until Elliot – an ex whom she hasn’t seen or spoken to for years – moves in next door, along with his perfect new girlfriend, Morgan. Suddenly, Esme’s past is right on her doorstep, or at least just over the fence.

When Elliot and Esme decide to keep their former relationship a secret from those around them, their subterfuge sets off a chain of events which not only forces Esme to re-evaluate her past relationship with Elliot, but also puts her friendship with David under the microscope and under pressure.

Something About Darling Island by Polly Babbington

It’s time for us to get back to Darling Island where the local time is so very far from care. Please remain seated with your seat belts fastened and trays in the upright position until we have crossed over on the floating bridge. Get ready for the ride, people. This is going to be good.

Life for Jane Le Romancer is all sorts of small. She goes to work, sits in her office, talks to her laptop, swirls around in a sea of numbers, goes home, talks to her laptop again, has dinner and the next day does the same thing again. Rinse and repeat.

With her only son away and her only friends scattered all over the place, she’s wondering what life is all about. She lives day to day via her online groups, cooking for one, pottering with her garden and receiving one too many visits from the postman.

One morning as she’s sitting in the office after a particularly interesting conversation with her laptop, an online post catches her eye.

House Swapper Wanted.

Come and stay in my gorgeous old mews house on Darling Island and enjoy all the coastal delights in the sweetest little house nestled by the sea. With its floating bridge, vintage Darling Street trams, delightful cosy pubs, gorgeous old fishing boats and secret cafes tucked away down little lanes, while away your days Darling style. Enjoy long walks by the sea, get to experience the blue waters of Darling Island’s bay and lap up the special flora and fauna all around.

Before Jane knows it, she’s swapping her three-storey house in a leafy London street for a tiny little place on an island shrouded in a hazy blue.

Will Jane’s life swap end up opening her eyes to everything that’s been missing in life or will she be wondering what in the world she’s done?

Book Club subscriptions

The Dog of the North by Elizabeth McKenzie(NB mag sub)

Penny Rush has problems. Freshly divorced from her mobile knife-sharpener husband, she has returned home to Santa Barbara to deal with her grandfather, who is being moved into a retirement home by his cruel second wife. Her grandmother, meanwhile, has been found in possession of a sinister sounding weapon called ‘the scintilltor’ and something even worse in her woodshed. Penny’s parents have been missing in the Australian outback for many years now, and so Penny must deal with this spiralling family crisis alone.

Enter The Dog of The North. The Dog of the North is a borrowed van, replete with yellow gingham curtains, wood panelling, a futon, a pinata, clunky brakes and difficult steering. It is also Penny’s getaway car from a failed marriage, a family in crisis and an uncertain future. This darkly, dryly comic novel follows Penny as she sets out in The Dog to find a way through the curveballs life has thrown at her and in doing so, find a way back to herself.

The Companion by Lesley Thomson (Capital Crime sub)

In a grand old mansion in the middle of the Sussex countryside, seven people have seen more than they should… The new chilling thriller from Lesley Thomson.

In a small community
James Ritchie was looking forward to spending the day with his son, though he was a little late picking him up from his ex-wife, Anna.

In the middle of nowhere
Later that afternoon, they are found dead, the victims of a double stabbing. Anna will never see her family again.

You need to keep your secrets close…
As DI Toni Kemp unravels the case, she is brought to a grand country mansion, long ago converted into flats. In this quiet, peaceful place, seven long-term residents have seen more than they should.

But this is a tight-knit group – and they are good at keeping secrets…

The Blackbird by Tim Weaver (Capital Crime sub)

CCTV footage captures Cate and Aiden Gascoigne driving home seconds before their car plunges into a ravine and explodes.

When fire crews arrive, the vehicle is empty.

Cate and Aiden have vanished.

Missing persons investigator David Raker has solved too many impossible cases. He knows that behind every disappearance lies a dark tale waiting to be uncovered.

What he doesn’t know is how dark this one is – or how close it will get to him . . .

Happy Reading!!