It’s probably just as well that I have other things to do rather than sit reading all day long, because if I could, I would. But, my body would seize up and my brain would likely explode.

It’s so hard to stop adding books to my Kindle and bookshelf. Sometimes I’ll add a sample to my Kindle, not only to check out the book, but also to remind myself to buy it later.

This is a short list of what’s on my TBR pile at the moment.

Number one – Water by John Boyne. I haven’t bought this one yet, but I will because it’s next up for discussion at our book club. I think I’ll enjoy it, judged on the blurb and because I’ve read John Boyne before. He writes well and to the point; no frilly language that makes me have to stop and digest.

BLURB: The first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the locals, she is Willow Hale, a solitary outsider escaping Dublin to live a hermetic existence in a small cottage, not a notorious woman on the run from her past.

But scandals follow like hunting dogs. And she has some questions of her own to answer. If her ex-husband is really the monster everyone says he is, then how complicit was she in his crimes?

Escaping her old life might seem like a good idea but the choices she has made throughout her marriage have consequences. Here, on the island, Vanessa must reflect on what she did – and did not do. Only then can she discover whether she is worthy of finding peace at all.

Number two – I read a review HERE of Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates and I couldn’t resist adding it to my pile. A remote cabin in the snowy wilderness thriller. Eight strangers, one killer! Right up my alley.

BLURB: When Christa joins a tour group heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains, she’s hopeful this will be her chance to put the ghosts of her past to rest. But when a bitterly cold snowstorm sweeps the region, the small group is forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Despite the uncomfortably claustrophobic quarters and rapidly dropping temperature, Christa believes they’ll be safe as they wait out the storm.

She couldn’t be more wrong.

Deep in the night, their tour guide goes missing…only to be discovered the following morning, his severed head impaled on a tree outside the cabin. Terrified, and completely isolated by the storm, Christa finds herself trapped with eight total strangers. One of them kills for sport…and they’re far from finished. As the storm grows more dangerous and the number of survivors dwindles one by one, Christa must decide who she can trust before this frozen mountain becomes her tomb.

Number three – I can’t remember where I heard about The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Somewhere on social media I’m presuming.

BLURB: Nora’s life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. Which raises the ultimate question: with infinite choices, what is the best way to live?

Number four– I first heard about this book – Process by Lucy Spraggan – from Bookworms on Instagram. I remember Lucy Spraggan on the X Factor about eleven years ago. She left half-way through because of an illness, but apparently the reason behind her departure was a lot more sinister than an illness. I’m not big into autobiographies, but I’m intrigued with this one.

BLURB: By the age of twenty, Lucy Spraggan had already experienced more extraordinary things than many do across a lifetime. Growing up in a creative household, surrounded by artists, alcohol and raucous parties, by her late teens she had played pubs, clubs and festivals, fallen in love with an older woman on a US road trip, experimented with drink and drugs, and been in and out of police custody.

When her X Factor audition went viral in 2012, Lucy became the bookies’ favourite to win the show. She was the first contestant ever to write and perform her own original songs, refusing to be pigeonholed by stylists and producers. Viewers fell for her unmanufactured, anti-pop princess stance, and the tabloids loved her.

Then, suddenly, mid-way through the live shows, Lucy dropped out. The public were told Lucy was unwell.

Now, for the first time, Lucy is ready to tell her story, in her own words.

Process is a book about the vicious impact of trauma across a lifetime; it is about Lucy’s successes and mistakes, her journey towards sobriety, calm and something like peace. Most of all, Process is an extraordinary story about a gifted artist and an expose of the toxic underbelly of noughties celebrity culture and reality TV.

Number five – Death in a Red Canvas Chair is written by N.A. Granger. It’s just one of her many Rhe Brewster Mystery novels, and this one stood out to me. Noelle blogs HERE!

BLURB: On a warm fall afternoon, the sweet odor of decay distracts Rhe Brewster from the noise and fury of her son’s soccer game. She’s a tall, attractive emergency room nurse with a type A personality, a nose for investigation and a yen for adrenalin. This time her nose leads her to the wet, decaying body of a young woman, sitting in a red canvas chair at the far end of the soccer field.

Her first call is to her brother-in-law, Sam Brewster, who is Sheriff of Pequod, the coastal Maine town where she lives. Sam and Rhe’s best friend Paulette, Pequod’s answer to Betty Crocker, are her biggest sources of encouragement when Rhe decides to help the police find the killer.

Her discovery that the victim is a student at the local college is initially thwarted by an old frenemy, Bitsy Wellington, the Dean of Students. Will, Rhe’s husband and a professor at the same college, resents her involvement in anything other than being a wife and mother and must be manipulated by Rhe so that she can follow her instincts.

Rhe’s interviews of college students leads her to a young woman who had been recruited the previous year to be an escort on a Caribbean cruise ship, and Rhe trails her to a high class brothel at a local seaside estate. The man behind the cruise ship escort service and the brothel is the owner of a chain of mortuaries and is related to the dead student.

When Rhe happens on the murder of a young hospital employee who also works for the mortuary chain, she becomes too much of a threat to the owner’s multiple enterprises. She is kidnapped by two of his thugs and is left to die in a mortuary freezer. In the freezer she finds frozen body parts, which are linked to a transplantation program at her hospital.

Despite all the twists and turns in her investigation, Rhe ultimately understands why the student was killed and who did it. And she solves the riddle of why the body was placed in the red canvas chair on the soccer field.

Number six – After interacting with the author, Rachel Brimbleon, on 𝕏 (Twitter) I was drawn to her novel, A Shop Girl’s Christmas, for several reasons. I love historical fiction and this story is set in 1911. It’s a bit of a murder mystery, which I also love, and I like to have something Christmassy around this time of year.

There’s one reason why I won’t be reading this book just yet, and that’s because I found out after I bought it that it’s book three in a series of four. So, I HAVE to read books one & two first – reviewers on Amazon said so!

BLURB: Christmas sees Pennington’s at its most glorious, thronged with shoppers, its grand staircase and balcony adorned with holly, mistletoe, tinsel and lights. It should be the happiest time, but dramas are seething beneath the surface.

For Cornelia Culford, in charge of jewellery, a divorce hearing looms, where she could lose custody of her young sons to her overbearing and unfaithful husband.

For Stephen Gower, being head of security at Pennington’s is the perfect refuge from a tragic past at Scotland Yard. But soon the past will call him back, as Joseph Carter and Elizabeth Pennington beg him to help solve the murder of Joseph’s first wife, now that it seems as if the killer has struck again.

For Joseph and Elizabeth, their marriage depends on exorcising the past. But can it ever be laid to rest?

Book one – A Shop Girl in Bath

Book Two – A Shop Girl Gets the Vote

Book Three – A shop Girl’s Christmas

Book Four – A Shop Girl at Sea

Number seven – I bought I’ll Miss You This Christmas because I read Lucy Mitchell’s Instructions for Falling in Love Again and I really enjoyed it, even though I’m not usually a fan of rom com.

I read a lot of crime dramas and thrillers, but sometimes I need to switch to something humorous, especially around Christmas time. I also enjoy a bit of romance now and then! So, this is what I’ve chosen for my funny romantic Christmas read this year!

BLURB: Emily feels like her life’s been shattered into tiny pieces and glued back together the wrong way. With her heart still aching after her sister’s sudden death, Emily has stepped in to care for her nine-year-old nephew, Felix. Wanting to focus on Felix, and trying to do the right thing, she ended her two-year relationship with Rory who wasn’t ready to settle down.

But when she takes Felix into London to see the Christmas lights, the two of them end up on a train heading towards the city where Rory lives. The long ride will give her time to reflect on whether she made a mistake letting him go. But as Rory embarks on his own journey at the same time, will their paths cross in time to come together for Christmas?

Number eight – I didn’t actually chose this book, The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. It was the book choice of the book club last month. I got my book-club dates mixed up and I was late buying it.

I’m not really sure how I’ll get on with this one. It’s a long book, and the author doesn’t use quotation marks. I hate that in a book! Why is this becoming a thing? For me, it disrupts my flow because without quotation marks it’s not always immediately clear if it’s dialogue or inner monologue.

Plus, there’s a huge part of this book without punctuation; commas and full stops. I read about this in the Amazon reviews and I thought it might be a glitch with the eBook version, but when I flicked through my paperback copy, I see that’s not the case. Several chapters contain no commas or full stops. How on Earth does this writing technique improve the book? That’s going to irritate me so much and I wish now that I hadn’t spent €18.99 on it. I’ll give it a go though, because I’ve read the sample on Kindle and I liked it.

I can’t leave without mentioning my own book, Secrets in the Babby House. Have a look at the sample… it might be one you’d like to add to your TBR pile!

Set in a gossipy small town in Ireland at a time when marriage is for keeps and sexuality is repressed, Secrets in the Babby House is a family saga over three decades that starts in 1956. It is a story of love, deception, and stolen diaries filled with sins and secrets.

This post contains affiliate links, and I will be compensated if you make a purchase through these links.