Our first book is an exhilarating tale of secrets, second chances and dreams coming true from our favourite tennis coach!

The Wild Card by Judy Murray

Publisher: Orion / Contemporary Fiction
Hardcover / ISBN: 9781398711334
Publication date: 8 June 2023

It’s never too late to follow your dreams…

Twenty years ago, Abigail Patterson put her promising tennis career on hold to have her baby son, Robbie. But after a wild card entry to Wimbledon, she suddenly finds herself swept up in a world she thought she’d left behind – and against all odds, she’s winning!

Yet as those long-buried dreams of lifting the sparkling silver trophy on centre court inch closer, Abi knows that it’s only a matter of time before the press start digging into her past and uncover the secret she’s kept hidden for so long.

The stakes are raised, but this time nothing – and no one – is going to stand in her way. But could the greatest comeback of all time destroy everything she’s sacrificed to protect?

Prepare for a roller coaster of emotions in our next book on the list – a hilarious and heartwarming summer read by bestselling author Sophie Gravia!

Meet me in Milan by Sophie Gravia

Publisher: Orion / Contemporary Fiction
Paperback / ISBN: 9781398715691
Publication date: 17 August 2023

The laugh-out-loud summer read you need in your life, from bestselling author Sophie Gravia.

Zara Smith is FINALLY in a healthy relationship… so why can’t she stop thinking about her ex?

The shocking news of the summer is that Tom – the ex Zara always thought would never settle down – is ENGAGED to beloved actress and all-natural beauty Quinn Foxx. They’re throwing a star-studded engagement party in Italy, and Zara is invited.

She isn’t planning to go until she finds an old note from Tom that shows their feelings for each other were once mutual. And she needs to know – does he still feel the same way? And, just like that, Zara’s on a plane to Milan to crash the most talked-about engagement of the year!

After all this time, could this be the moment Zara’s been waiting for… or the biggest mistake of her life?

Against the backdrop of the Amalfi Coast, secrets unravel and passions ignite… With love, deception, and breathtaking landscapes, Secrets of the Villa Amore is your perfect summer read! 

Secrets of the Villa Amore by Carol Kirkwood

Publisher: HarperCollins / Contemporary Fiction
Hardback / ISBN: 9780008550929
Publication date: 20 July 2023

By the glittering shores of the Mediterranean, two families gather for the wedding of the year.

Carina is marrying her childhood sweetheart, Giorgio. He isn’t the person she thinks he is.

Hollywood starlet Edie is the dazzling bridesmaid. She’s hiding something that could destroy her best friend.

Mother-of-the-bride Philippa is stunned by the arrival of a lover from her past. Can her marriage survive?

As the guests gather under the azure skies of the Amalfi coast, scandal and intrigue are waiting to be revealed, and one of the guests will do anything to hide the truth …

Next up, delve into a web of love and secrets in Between Us – a gripping tale where a celebratory weekend exposes cracks in relationships and leads to life-changing revelations.

Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane

Publisher: HarperCollins / Contemporary Fiction, Romance
Paperback / ISBN: 9780008412487
Publication date: 11 May 2023

When Joe and Roisin join their group of friends for a weekend away, it’s a triple celebration – a birthday, an engagement and the launch of Joe’s new crime drama on TV.

But when Roisin sees secrets she shared with Joe play out on the TV screen, she knows that between us means nothing at all.

Roisin finds herself searching for clues to the truth – about her life, their history, and the man she thought she loved. And it’s then that Roisin finds the most unexpected plot twist of them all. Among those same old friends, there’s a surprising potential for new beginnings . . .

From teenage witches to time travel, our next book is a captivating collection of short stories that provide delightful escapism from the chaos of everyday life.

Because I don’t know what you mean and what you don’t by Josie Long

Publisher: Canongate Books / Contemporary Fiction, Short Stories
Hardback / ISBN: 9781838856083
Publication date: 25 May 2023

From a comic mastermind comes this brilliant collection of stories.

Three teenagers believe they are witches.
A woman defaces a local billboard.
A bored landlord tries to influence his son’s best friend.
A cul-de-sac WhatsApp group discusses eggs at length.
A heavily pregnant woman finds a way to time travel and a girl discovers joy on a stolen bicycle …

Each tale paints a life in miniature and offers an escape chute from the mayhem of modern life.

Next up, embark on an exhilarating journey of self-discovery in The Wine Runner – where the author trades in his office job for a year-long adventure, combining his passion for running with a quest to uncover hidden gems in Europe’s winemaking regions.

The Wine Runner by Colin Renton

Publisher: Polaris Publishing / Non-fiction, Travel
Paperback / ISBN: 9781915359056
Publication date: 4 May 2023

With his sixtieth birthday looming, Colin Renton decides that it’s time to escape office life and focus on achieving some of his unfulfilled goals.

He embarks on a year-long adventure that takes him from the busy streets of Edinburgh to the traffic-free roads, sodden fields and dusty paths of Europe’s winemaking regions. He laces up his running shoes and joins thousands of fellow athletes in races that test him over various distances, degrees of difficulty and levels of seriousness. His schedule, which culminates with a marathon debut, takes him to places he would otherwise not have visited.

On his travels, he seeks out local wines that deserve a place in a carefully chosen twelve-bottle case, a process that throws up some fascinating insights and introduces him to a vintage crop of engaging characters.

The crossover between running and wine uncorks a tale of endurance, curiosity and discovery, told in an accessible style and served up with a splash of local colour and a drop of wry humour.

From beloved classics to contemporary favourites, our next book is an insightful pop culture journey that confronts the lack of representation and stereotypes faced by plus-size women in film and television.

Fat Girl Best Friend by Sarah Grant

Publisher: Tippermuir Books / Non-fiction, Film and Television
Paperback / ISBN: 9781913836214
Publication date: 26 June 2023

In Fat Girl Best Friend, Sarah Grant takes the reader on a pop culture voyage which encompasses Bridgerton, The DUFF, Encanto, Orange is the New Black, Pitch Perfect, Pride and Prejudice, Shrek, Star Wars, Stranger Things, The Vicar of Dibley, to name but a few.

We all want to live our lives with oodles of Main Character Energy, but for some of us, we just don’t look like your average entertainment thin Leading Lady.

While we live in an age of body positivity, we are not seeing that reflected in the cinema or on our television screens. From Fat Monica to Fat Amy, plus size women in film and television are a rare commodity, and if we see ourselves represented at all, it’s not a pretty picture. We’re either the pitied bully victim or the empty, sympathetic and disposable best friend.

Through the lens of Female Friendship, Fat Girl Best Friend dives into the treatment of plus size women in film and television, and goes looking for that Main Character Energy we all know we deserve.

Original and thought-provoking, our next book will take you on a journey like no other – an exploration of the human experience that traverses through historical events and personal moments that shape a family and their story. 

A Country of Eternal Light by Paul Dalgarno

Publisher: Polygon / Contemporary Fiction
Paperback / ISBN: 9781846976438
Publication date: 3 August 2023

Margaret Bryce has been having a hard time since dying in 2014.

In a place beyond, we join Margaret as she revisits her life, from her Aberdeen prefab childhood to the birth of her twin girls, through Thatcher’s Britain, the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster, Australia’s Black Summer bushfires, the death of Princess Diana and the COVID pandemic. But something isn’t quite right. Margaret is trying to remember, but also fighting to forget.

A Country of Eternal Light will take you on a journey like no other. It is an utterly original, bitingly funny and poignant novel about life, death, what we choose to remember – and what we’d do anything to forget.

Next up, immerse yourself in a thrilling tale of danger, espionage, and unexpected alliances in this reprinted classic from Dorothy Dunnett!

Operation Nassau by Dorothy Dunnett

Publisher: Farrago / Crime and Mystery
Paperback / ISBN: 9781788424158
Publication date: 6 July 2023

Doctor B. McRannoch is in the Bahamas with her father who has moved there from Scotland because of asthma. She is a savvy and tough young woman who shows much independence of mind and spirit.

However, when Sir Bart Edgecome, a British agent who has been poisoned with arsenic falls ill on his way back from New York, she becomes involved in a series of events beyond her wildest imagination.

Drawn into an espionage plot with multiple suspects, it is only the presence of enigmatic portrait painter Johnson Johnson on his yacht, Dolly, that saves the day. But nothing is quite as straightforward as it at first seems.

One of Scotland’s favourite crime writer’s takes on an iconic detective in a captivating mystery set amidst a scorching LA heatwave – with treacherous landscapes, suspicious characters, and a race against time to locate a missing heiress.

The Second Murderer by Denise Mina

Publisher: Harvill Secker / Crime and Mystery
Hardback / ISBN: 9781787302853
Publication date: 13 July 2023

It’s mid-September, a heatwave has descended on the parched hills of LA and Private Detective Philip Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, an almost mythic place sitting high on top of Beverly Hills. Wealthy twenty-two-year-old Chrissie Montgomery, set to inherit an enormous fortune, is missing.

She’s a walking target, ripe for someone to get their claws into. Her dying father, along with his sultry bottle blonde girlfriend, wants her found before that happens. They’ve hired Anna Riorden, Marlowe’s nemesis, too. The search takes them to the roughest neighbourhoods of LA through dive bars and Skid Row. And that’s before he finds the body at The Brody Hotel. Who will get to her first, Marlowe, Anne, or the men chasing her fortune? And does she want to be found?

Step back into the nineteenth-century Edinburgh in this gripping tale of science and crime – the fourth instalment in Ambrose Parry’s brilliant historical series.

Voices of the Dead by Ambrose Parry

Publisher: Canongate Books / Crime and Mystery, Historical Fiction
Hardback / ISBN: 9781838855475
Publication date: 15 June 2023

Edinburgh, 1853. In a city of science, discovery can be deadly …

In a time of unprecedented scientific discovery, the public’s appetite for wonder has seen a resurgence of interest in mesmerism, spiritualism and other unexplained phenomena.

Dr Will Raven is wary of the shadowlands that lie between progress and quackery, but Sarah Fisher can’t afford to be so picky. Frustrated in her medical ambitions, she sees opportunity in a new therapeutic field not already closed off to women.

Raven has enough on his hands as it is. Body parts have been found at Surgeons’ Hall, and they’re not anatomy specimens. In a city still haunted by the crimes of Burke and Hare, he is tasked with heading off a scandal.

When further human remains are found, Raven is able to identify a prime suspect, and the hunt is on before he kills again. Unfortunately, the individual he seeks happens to be an accomplished actor, a man of a thousand faces and a renowned master of disguise.

With the lines between science and spectacle dangerously blurred, the stage is set for a grand and deadly illusion …

Next on the list is an electrifying crime novel set in the Scottish Highlands, where secrets will be unearthed and lives will hang in the balance.

All Of Us Are Broken by Fiona Cummins

Publisher: Macmillan / Crime and Mystery
Hardback / ISBN: 9781529040203
Publication date: 20 July 2023

The electrifying crime novel featuring DS Saul Anguish from the award winning author, Fiona Cummins, author of Into the Dark and Rattle.

Every one of them has a dark secret

The Family: After a year they want to forget, the Hardwicke family set out to the Scottish Highlands for a much needed holiday.

The Crimes: They are about to cross paths with Missy and Fox, a violent and dangerous young couple hell-bent on infamy, their love story etched in blood and a dark past which must be uncovered.

The Detective: As the clock ticks down, Detective Saul Anguish is on the hunt to find the couple before more lives are lost.

The Mother: who will be forced to make an impossible decision.

Our list wouldn’t be complete without something for the little ones! In this bright and fun picture book, a dedicated wildlife vet and her trusty dog companion embark on exciting adventures across Scotland.

Shona the Vet by Catherine Stables

Publisher: Foggie Toddle Books / Picture Book
Paperback / ISBN: 9781838037956
Publication date: 31 May 2023

Shona is a busy wildlife vet who travels across the north of Scotland with her wee dog, Jock, in her red helicopter. The emergency calls take her from Spey Bay to Portree as she helps a range of Scottish animals and birds who have injured themselves or got into distress. The illustrations are bright, fun, and friendly.

Older kids will love this fast-paced and hilarious adventure from Christopher Mackie – a laugh-out-loud fantasy with a captivating cast of characters and a magic world like no other.

Cloudlanders by Christopher Mackie

Publisher: Floris Books / Children’s Fiction, Fantasy
Paperback / ISBN: 9781782508465
Publication date: 17 August 2023

An island of magic and mayhem floating above the flooded Earth, Bastion has long been the last country left in the world. Then one day best friends Kurt (an eight-foot mushroom with a fear of heights) and Flicker (a tiny, tough-talking gemstone faerie) stand on the edge of the land and see the impossible: a plane from nowhere is heading straight for them.

Kurt and Flicker join forces with a brave gang of misfits – including wood-nymph twins (one bounty hunter, one bookworm) and a gruff, shapeshifting wolf – to rescue the pilot and face a dangerous enemy. Can the Cloudlanders save their floating island from crashing into the Endless Sea and the terrifying tentacles of a massive monster?

Cloudlanders is a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud fantasy adventure with a unique cast of characters, tonnes of heart, and gasp-inducing moments. Fans of Ben Miller, Tom Fletcher and Terry Pratchett will love this quirky and sharply written debut novel from Kelpies Prize winner, Christopher Mackie.

Finally, our last book on the list is a captivating Young Adult novel filled with supernatural twists and unforeseen alliances. Happy reading!

Overemotional by David Penne

Publisher: Ink Road / Young Adult
Paperback / ISBN: 9781785304729
Publication date: 6 July 2023

Steven is one unlucky closeted sixth former. Whenever he has a strong emotion, be that happiness or sadness, weird things happen. Like, potentially dangerous things. Recently, he kissed another boy for the first time and . . . the boy’s head literally exploded. Steven flees to the miserable town of Grunsby-on-Sea, determined not to hurt anyone else with his “Emomancy”.

With a best friend as determined as Freya, it is impossible to stay hidden for long though, especially when she realises Steven might be in danger after a mysterious organisation called DEMA start asking questions about him. Where Freya goes, her boyfriend Marcus and American friend Troy soon follow. Together, they are determined to find out more about this organisation and what “neutralising” someone like Steven might mean.

By chance, Steven meets a handsome stranger who claims to share his powers and who offers to teach Steven how to control them. But who is he in relation to DEMA? What on earth happened to make Grunsby-on-Sea so lethargic a town? And can you really trust a charismatic stranger you meet in a café bathroom?