If you need yet another excuse to stay inside on a cold rainy day, then books are as good as they come.
Well, we’ve read and reviewed some new releases, so turn the heating up, stay in your pyjamas and curl up with one of these brilliant novels.
1. The Chemist, by Stephenie Meyer
As the author behind the bestselling Twilight vampire romance series, which became essential reading for millions of tweens and teenagers and sparked box-office gold dust, Stephenie Meyer needs no introduction.
But if anyone wonders whether that alchemy would translate into a mainstream thriller for adults, her novel The Chemist comfortably passes the litmus test.
The central female character is a fiercely independent and highly intelligent medic, who worked for a clandestine US government agency using her molecular chemical know-how to interrogate enemies of the state.
Now on the run from those same authorities, her survival depends on never trusting anyone.
So, sparks fly when circumstances force her to team up with a gentle school teacher and CIA spy to tackle one last job. Gutsy and full-on from page one, this is a rip-roaring thriller in the best tradition but its real charm lies in Meyer’s engaging key characters.
2. Lyrebird by Cecelia Ahern
Irish-born Cecelia Ahern is one of the biggest names in chick lit. When she was just 21, she wrote the epic tear jerker PS I Love You, and since then her bestsellers have kept on coming.
Bo and Solomon are a trendy, hipster couple who happen upon the mysterious Laura while they are working on a documentary in a remote area of Ireland. She’s lived in almost complete isolation for most of her life, and has the amazing ability to mimic sounds.
As they decide to make Laura the subject of their next documentary, she takes over their lives and changes them irrevocably.
Solomon and Laura’s instant attraction to each other is a bit over the top, but the plot is so intriguing that you can’t help but be hooked from the first chapter.
This is in many ways a typical love story, but in other ways, entirely the opposite. The concept is clever, the characters are vivid and relatable, and with so many twists and secrets waiting to be revealed, you’ll race through to the end.
3. Swing Time by Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith is so thoroughly impressive as a human being – smart, witty and a tenured professor of fiction at New York University; her first novel, White Teeth, she wrote while in her third year at King’s College Cambridge – that even when you can’t quite latch on to her writing, you wish you could, as though it’s your fault for not being intellectual and insightful enough.
This is the struggle with Swing Time; the characters are so brilliantly drawn, the minutiae of their worlds and cultural contexts so perfectly illustrated, but there’s so little to find endearing in them.
It tells of two friends, bound by the north-west London neighbourhood they grew up in and their dreams of becoming dancers, although only one of them has the talent for it.
Their relationship is one stricken by power plays, jealousy and the fear of being outshone and ditched, the constant disappointments of which are exhausting to read. Swing Time wows when it comes to language and characterisation, but beware, it’s also a bit of a slog.
4. Under A Pole Star by Stef Penney
Flora Mackie is drawn to the frozen wastes of the Arctic Circle like a moth to a naked flame.
Having visited the perilous lands at the age of 12, the daughter of a Dundee whaling ship captain feels her very being is inexorably linked with the land of the eskimo and freezing temperatures.
Stef Penney, who delighted with the award-winning The Tenderness Of Wolves, has returned with another epic tale of heroic deeds. Mackie, named the Snow Queen by a newspaper editor, returns to embrace the dangers of her second home as leader of a British expedition, faced with competition from a group of Americans hell-bent on defying the dangers to explore uncharted land.
With the aim of discovering new territory and naming it for their wealthy backers, both groups take on the outlook of the native people whose view of life is coloured by the closeness of death.
Mackie also gets the chance to return many years later, but only she knows what secrets she will reveal in this gripping story of mankind’s folly.
5. Five Go Parenting (Enid Blyton for Grown Ups) by Bruno Vincent
The Enid Blyton estate has given its blessing for a series of parodies of the author’s best-loved children’s books: The Famous Five. Including Five On Brexit Island, Five Go On A Strategy Away Day and Five Go Gluten Free, the books have all been lovingly penned by Bruno Vincent, with tongue very firmly in cheek.
In one of them, Five Go Parenting, Julian, George, Dick and Anne foil their dastardly cousin Rupert’s dodgy dealings, only to discover he and his “Eastern-European” wife have a baby, Lily, for whom they’re now unexpectedly responsible. And so ensues one of their oddest adventures yet, as they learn how to look after her.
Dick shows early promise, finding he can multi-task while she’s strapped to his chest, while Anne is blanked by both the posh mums and the down-to-earth ones at a swimming lesson. From panicking over Dr Google diagnoses, to choosing buggies, it’s brilliantly observed.