Under the Lemon Tree

by

Emma Cowell

Could discovering a family secret encourage Kat to follow her heart?

Shattered by the sudden loss of her twin, Nik, Kat is lost in grief. The comfort of family feels both soothing and suffocating, but everything changes when she inherits a house on the breathtaking Greek island of Agistri from a mysterious uncle she’s never met.

Arriving on Agistri, Kat is mesmerized by its crystalline waters, lush pine forests, and the citrus-scented air. Among the white-washed houses and warm, welcoming locals, she begins to feel her heart heal. The island offers more than solace, sparking courage in Kat to face her loss ― and maybe even embrace the spark of unexpected love…

But as she unearths her family’s buried past, Kat must also confront her own fears of belonging, forgiveness ― and the possibility of rediscovering happiness in the shadow of heartbreak…

REVIEW

Kat is grieving the loss of her twin brother Nik when she finds out she has inherited a house on the Greek island of Agistri from an uncle she had never met. She decides to go and see what the house is like and take some time out when she literally bumps into a man at the airport and spills her drink over him (she is seriously clumsy!). He is quite rude to her and the more she tries to apologise, the angrier he gets.

The house needs a lot of work and so Kat gets stuck in, but it's not long before she meets her neighbour, who turns out to be the rude passenger from the airport! but this time he seems to have mellowed and Kat cannot take her eyes off him! 

As Kat sets to work on renovating the house, she is also getting to know her neighbour! but little does Kat know that the island also holds some family secrets that put her family dynamic in jeopardy.

I really loved this book. It had a great mixture of characters with Kate going through every emotion from grief to love to happiness, sometimes all on the same page! I thoroughly enjoy this author's books.

 The Mourning Necklace

by

Kate Foster

Inspired by an infamous real-life case, The Mourning Necklace is the unforgettable original feminist historical novel from the Women’s Prize-longlisted author of The Maiden, Kate Foster.

They said I would swing for the crime and I did . . . I wear the rope-mark like a mourning necklace.

1724. In a tavern just outside Edinburgh, the family of Maggie Dickson – hanged for the murder of her newborn child – drown their sorrows, mourning her death yet relieved she is gone. Shame haunts them; passers-by avert their eyes from her cheap coffin on its rickety cart.

But as her family pray her soul rests in peace, a figure appears at the door.

It is Maggie. She is alive.

Bruised and dazed, Maggie has little time for her family’s questions. All that matters to her is answering one: will they hang her twice?

REVIEW

In 1724 Maggie Dickson leaves her family home in Edinburgh with the intention of starting a new life in London after her husband disappears, supposedly by a press gang. 

Maggie's father is a drunk and very abusive. Her mother is weak and also scared of her husband, whilst her sister Joan is manipulative and jealous of Maggie and her recent marriage and will do anything she can to undermine her. 

Maggie gets to a boarding house in Kelso where the landlady takes her under her wing to help out with the chores. Only after a few weeks does Maggie realise that she is with child and tries to hide it for as long as she can. 

Maggie panics when she goes into labour and is adamant she doesn't want the baby, but when her daughter is born very early and doesn't survive for very long, Maggie puts her in a basket and takes her to be buried by the river bank. 

When the baby is discovered and Maggie is found out, she is accused of concealing a pregnancy and charged with murder, the punishment of which is death by hanging.

The day of her execution comes and she is hung, but she does not die and she enters the pub where her family are mourning her death, only for them all to be amazed that she is still alive!

This is a true story and one that I found fascinating and read it in only a few days. I have now bought this authors other books as I thoroughly enjoyed this one and would definitely recommend. 

 The Island Between Us

by

Dougie McHale

Carissa thought she had escaped her past when she fled Edinburgh for the sunlit island of Skiathos. But her peace is shattered when her former partner finds her, determined to drag her back into his control.

Her only strength lies in the friendships she forges with Thomas, a WWII veteran who carries the burden of betrayal and loss, and with Demitris, who offers the love she desperately needs. As Thomas recounts his wartime mission, where danger, loyalty, and love collided, Carissa finds the courage to stand against the shadows threatening her own life.

REVIEW

Carissa is recovering from a toxic relationship with her former partner and decides to leave her home town of Edinburgh to take up a job on the Greek island of Skiathos as a walking tour guide. 

She forms a friendship with Thomas, who is a WWII veteran and he begins to tell her his story of how he came to end up on Skiathos. His story will tear at your heartstrings with his memories of love, loss, bravery and loyalty.

She also has her colleague, Dimitris, who she would like to become more than a colleague and she thinks the feeling is mutual.

On returning back to her house on the island one day after work, she finds a note on her doorstep which sends chills up her spine. Is her past catching up with her all the way from Edinburgh?

I loved the dual timeline aspect of this book. The characters were great and each chapter left on a cliffhanger and so made me want to read "just one more chapter"!

This is the first book I have read by this author, but I am already hoping to read his new one coming out soon as I thoroughly enjoyed this story and read it on holiday in just a couple of days. 

 The Island Love Song

by

Emma Cowell

Hydra, the picturesque Greek island, is a paradise for most, yet for sisters Ella and Georgia, it is a place where their darkest secrets dwell. And now the time has come for them to confront their past as they return to Greece to scatter their mother’s ashes.

Ella is haunted by a love song that was written for her by the man who broke her heart years earlier and she longs to find peace so she can move on with her life.

Georgia pretends everything in her life is perfect, but she is plagued with guilt. If what she’s kept hidden for decades was revealed, their family would never be the same again.

The island is urging the sisters to confront the truth, but can they build a future on the ruins of their past?

REVIEW

Ella and Georgia are sisters, but complete opposites. Ella is carefree and travels the world as a photographer and Georgia is married with a daughter, Phoenix and pretends she has the perfect life, but they come together to take a trip back to the island of their birth, Hydra, which is a Greek island to scatter their late mother's ashes. 

Ella really doesn't want to go back to the island as it holds too many sad memories, especially when she had her heart broken.

As you can imagine, things do not go to plan and Ella and Georgia have different ideas of what they want to do whilst they're on the island and Georgia is worried that secrets from the past could come back to haunt her and her family.

This is such a lovely summer holiday read, with a few twists and turns along the way. I really love this author's writing and this one is no exception. 

 A Fatal Love

by

Louisa Treger

Following Ruth Ellis' long-awaited posthumous conditional pardon in July 2026, never has there been a more compelling moment to revisit the woman behind one of Britain's most enduring legal cases.

It is Easter Sunday in 1955 and a young man lies face-down on the ground covered in blood. A woman, blonde and petite, stands over him with a gun in her hand. This is the story of Ruth Ellis as never told before...

As Ruth awaits her trial in Holloway Prison, she recollects growing up in England during the Second World War and the events that led to the death of her lover, David Blakely.

Meanwhile, Kitty Carrington - the assistant to Ruth's trial lawyer - tries to forge her own path through the male-dominated legal world of the 1950s and ensure that Ruth receives a fair trial.

Navigating secrets, betrayal and a broken justice system, Ruth and Kitty try to take control of their own lives and narratives. But do we ever really know the full story?

REVIEW

We all know the story of Ruth Ellis, who was the last woman to be hanged in Britain in the 50s, but this story goes beyond the sentencing and gives an insight into how Ruth felt towards her lover David Blakely and how this affected her children, her family and also herself. 

Ruth is separated from her husband George Ellis and she is a hostess in a club in London when she meets David Blakely. They instantly have a connection to one another, but Ruth falls hard for David who is a wannabe racing driver, but without the financial means to pursue his career. He doesn't seem to want to introduce Ruth to his family and often asks Ruth for money when his "allowance" from his parents has run out. 

David is physically and emotionally abusive to Ruth and his coercive behaviour worries a lot of her friends, especially Desmond Cussen, who was Ruth's on off lover who was very kind to her and helped her out with her son Andy, but Ruth just played him along with David, which infuriated him and caused her a lot of pain.

When Ruth is arrested for shooting David at point blank range, she is adamant she doesn't want to be vindicated for her actions and that she deserves whatever punishment she is given, but her Lawyer and his assistant (Kitty) think otherwise and desperately try to get her to change her plea.

This is such a sad story because of the way Ruth was treated up to the killing by David, but really men in general. She was abused, coerced and her mental health and emotional state would certainly have been questioned in a court of law today. 

This was a fabulous read and I read it in only a few days. One of my books of the year and would thoroughly recommend. 

 The Forgetting

by 

Hannah Beckerman

When Anna Bradshaw wakes up in a hospital bed in London, she remembers nothing, not even her loving husband, Stephen. The doctors say her amnesia is to be expected, but Anna feels cut adrift from her entire life.

In Bristol, Livvy Nicholson is newly married to Dominic and eager to get back to work after six months’ maternity leave. But when Dominic’s estranged mother appears, making a series of unnerving claims, Livvy is sucked into a version of herself she doesn’t recognise.

A hundred miles apart, both women feel trapped and disorientated, and their stories are about to collide. Can they uncover the secret that connects them and reconstruct their fractured lives?

REVIEW

Anna Bradshaw has woken up in hospital in London after a car crash unable to remember anything at all, especially her husband Stephen who is at her bedside trying to comfort her as best he can.

Livvy Nicholson thinks she has the perfect life - a loving husband Dominic, a gorgeous baby boy called Leo, her family nearby and the chance of promotion when she goes back to work after her maternity leave, so why does she feel trapped and torn between her husband and her family?

When Anna gets home she still cannot remember anything at all about her previous life. Stephen tells her to rest and that her memory will come back eventually, but doesn't try to get her to remember anything and it's only when she starts looking around the house for memories and finds some packing boxes that things get even more confusing for her.

When Dominic drops a bombshell to Livvy that he has been offered a new job in London and that they should pack up their things and go on a big adventure, Livvy is more than a bit anxious, but Dominic persuades her that it will be great for their careers.

Anna and Livvy have more in common than they could possibly realise, you will just have to read it find out what!

I love how this book goes from Anna to Livvy in every chapter. The characters were really well thought out and I honestly couldn't put this book down and read it in just a few days. Its short chapters just kept wanting me to read one more to find out what happens! It gets all of your emotions - it's sad and a bit creepy, but so well written that it is a real page turner! I love this authors writing. 

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 Wings over Valetta

by

Tracy Cook

As the bombs rain down, love and hope refuse to surrender.

Malta, 1941. As bombs fall across the island and invasion looms, Kitty Campbell is haunted by the daughter she was forced to give up for adoption years before. Desperate to find her child, Kitty begins searching for answers – but uncovering the trail is complicated by her father’s secretive past and a mysterious stranger on the island.

Working as an Aircraft Plotter at Fighter Command in Valletta, tracking the fierce air battles raging in the skies above Malta, Kitty uncovers secrets that could change everything – and faces an impossible choice between duty, love, and the child she has never forgotten.

REVIEW

Kitty Campbell and her mother Lydia live on the island of Malta and she is the daughter of a Naval Commander and when she got pregnant without being married, her father took things into his own hands and told Kitty that he had put her daughter (who she named Alice) up for adoption as it would be "for the best".

When her father dies Kitty sees it as the perfect time to try and find Alice, but she just needs to get the information she needs to trace her, but her father doesn't leave her any paperwork, but here father's will does bring up more mysteries when it states that her family home in England needs to be sold and half the proceed go to a mysterious person.

Kitty's mother has had enough and wants to return to England, but Kitty remains in Malta and wants to help the war effort and becomes an Aircraft Plotter at Fighter Command in Valletta where a certain RAF Pilot, Bill is stationed. 

Can Kitty trust Bill enough to tell him about Alice and to help her find out who the mystery person is in her father's will so that she can try to stop the sale of her beloved home in England. Does that house hold the secrets to where Alice could be?

Oh my goodness, this was a corker of a book. I think it could well be one of my favourites of the year. The attention to detail and the research that must have gone into it made it a real page turner. Full of great characters and Kitty was adorable. I can't believe this is the author's first book. I really hope there is another in the pipeline. I will definitely be recommending it.