Summer reads that Team Bookends are looking forward to!

Like everyone else in the UK we can’t wait for summer to arrive, warmer weather, longer days and spending more time outside with friends and family (and reading in the garden)! Therefore to get us feeling summery, we’ve rounded up the top books we are looking forward to reading this summer! Here goes…

 

Summer at the French Olive Grove by Sophie Claire – out May 27th

 

Could love be the biggest adventure of all?

Filmmaker Lily’s life is all about work and adventure. So when she suffers an accident on her travels and finds herself recuperating in the quiet French seaside village where she spent her childhood, she can’t wait to escape. Not least because Olivier – Lily’s childhood friend and former crush, who she has spent the last thirteen years avoiding – is staying next door . . .

Strong-minded masterbaker Olivier is happily settled in St Pierre, preparing to marry and put down roots. But Lily’s return to the village risks turning his carefully-laid plans upsidedown, and as the pair rediscover their familiar rivalry and fun, sparks fly.

Is Lily really as fearless and independent as she seems on the surface – or is she just running from the past? And what if Olivier is the only one who can teach her what it really means to be brave?

 

Three Weddings and a Proposal by Sheila O’Flanagan – out May 20th

 

 

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE NO. 1 BESTSELLERS THE WOMEN WHO RAN AWAY AND THE MISSING WIFE

‘A glamorous, empowering read with a glorious spin on the wedding scene’ Veronica Henry

‘Reading a Sheila O’Flanagan novel always feels like sitting down for a cup of tea with a friend – she writes with such warmth and empathy’ Beth O’Leary

At the first wedding, there’s a shock

 The second wedding is unexpected

 By the third, Delphie thinks nothing could surprise her. But she’s wrong . . .

Delphie is enjoying her brother’s wedding. Her surprise last-minute Plus One has stunned her family – and it’s also stopped any of them asking again why she’s still single. But when she sees all the missed calls that evening, she knows it can’t be good news. And she’s right.

Delphie has been living her best life, loving her job, her friends, her no-strings relationships and her dream house by the sea. Now she has to question everything she believed about who she is and what she wants. Is her mum right – is it time to settle down? Or does she want to keep on trying to have it all?

Each wedding of a glorious summer brings a new surprise. And as everything Delphie thought she had is threatened, she has the chance to reshape her future . . .

 

The Orange Grove by Rosanna Ley – out now

 

 

Set in sunny Seville, The Orange Grove is the wonderfully evocative new novel from the bestselling author of The Lemon Tree Hotel. Holly loves making marmalade. Now she has a chance to leave her stressful city job and pursue her dream – of returning to the Dorset landscape of her childhood to open Bitter Orange, a shop celebrating the fruit that first inspired her.

Holly’s mother Ella has always loved Seville. So why is she reluctant to go back there with Holly to source products for the shop? What is she frightened of – and does it have anything to do with the old Spanish recipe for Seville orange and almond cake that Ella keeps hidden from her family?

In Seville, where she was once forced to make the hardest decision of her life, Ella must finally face up to the past, while Holly meets someone who poses a threat to all her plans. Seville is a city full of sunshine and oranges. But it can also be bittersweet. Will love survive the secrets of the orange grove?

 

 

The Getaway by Isabelle Broom – out June 10th

 

 

Sometimes it takes losing everything to find the person you need . . .

Most people travel to Croatia for its endless sunshine, pebbly beaches and crystal clear sea.

Kate goes there to disappear.

She needs to escape from a life that has fallen apart in spectacular and public fashion, and no one on the beautiful island of Hvar knows who she is or what she’s running away from.

Until she meets another lonely soul.

Alex is different to any man Kate has ever known, yet the connection between them is undeniable. She soon begins to open up in ways she never has before – not even to herself. But Kate is not the only person in Hvar hiding secrets. And, as she is about to discover, it is always only a matter of time before the truth catches up with you . . .

 

The Schoolteacher of Saint-Michel by Sarah Steele – out June 24th

 

 

‘My darling girl, I need you to find someone for me . . .’

France, 1942. At the end of the day, the schoolteacher releases her pupils. She checks they have their identity passes, and warns them not to stop until the German guards have let them through the barrier that separates occupied France from Free France. As the little ones fly across the border and into their mothers’ arms, she breathes a sigh of relief. No one is safe now. Not even the children.

Berkshire, present day. A letter left to her by her beloved late grandmother Gigi takes Hannah Stone on a journey deep into the heart of the Dordogne landscape. As she begins to unravel a forgotten history of wartime bravery and sacrifice, she discovers the heartrending secret that binds her grandmother to a village schoolteacher, the remarkable Lucie Laval . . .

A story of friendship, courage and hope, The Schoolteacher of Saint Michel is an unforgettable read.

 

 

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate – out now

 

 

‘A tale of enduring power’ Paula McLain

A dramatic story of a family separated, their search for answers, and an epic journey to reunite the missing from the author of the global, two million-copy bestseller, Before We Were Yours. This is a heart-wrenching novel inspired by little-known historical events, based on actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones, lost to them when their families were sold off.