From the hotly anticipated follow-up to the TikTok sensation It Ends With Us to a genre-defying meditation on forbidden love, and a feel-good romance that’s bound to get you in the festive spirit, here’s what Zoella Book Club reads we’ll be hibernating with this winter, no doubt with a mountain of Quality Street in tow.
September – Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield
In this sweeping debut, Riverdale and Locke and Key star Asha Bromfield takes readers to the heart of Jamaica, and into the soul of a girl coming to terms with her family, and herself, set against the backdrop of a hurricane.
Tilla has spent her entire life trying to make her father love her. But every six months, he leaves their family and returns to his true home: the island of Jamaica.
When Tilla’s mother tells her she’ll be spending the summer on the island, Tilla dreads the idea of seeing him again, but longs to discover what life in Jamaica has always held for him. In an unexpected turn of events, Tilla is forced to face the storm that unravels in her own life as she learns about the dark secrets that lie beyond the veil of paradise – all in the midst of an impending hurricane.
October’s Pick – That Green Eyed Girl, by Julie Owen Moylan
Be transported to mid-century New York in this evocative page-turning debut about forbidden love, loss and deceit. Part historical thriller, part coming-of-age tale, the beautiful sense of place, city heat and complicated women at the heart of this novel will have you gripped from the first page. Told through two alternative timelines spanning 20 years, That Green Eyed Girl is a skilfully constructed must-read for 2022!
1955: In an apartment on the Lower East Side, school teachers Dovie and Gillian live as lodgers. Dancing behind closed curtains, mixing cocktails for two, they guard their private lives fiercely. Until someone guesses the truth…
1975: Twenty years later in the same apartment, Ava Winters is keeping her own secret. Her mother has become erratic, haunted by something Ava doesn’t understand – until one sweltering July morning, she disappears.
Soon after her mother’s departure, Ava receives a parcel. Addressed simply to ‘Apartment 3B’, it contains a photo of a woman with the word ‘LIAR’ scrawled across it. Ava does not know what it means or who sent it. But if she can find out then perhaps she’ll discover the answers she is seeking – and meet the woman at the heart of it all…
November’s Pick – It Starts With Us, by Colleen Hoover
CoHo is back with another unputdownable read with this hotly anticipated sequel to It Ends With Us, and this time, we get a whole book dedicated to Atlas. As we should. Yasss to Colleen giving the people what they want. Will we ever recover? Unlikely.
Before It Ends with Us, it started with Atlas. Colleen Hoover tells fan favourite Atlas’s side of the story and shares what comes next in this long-anticipated sequel to the #1 Sunday Times bestseller It Ends with Us.
Lily and her ex-husband, Ryle, have just settled into a civil co-parenting rhythm when she suddenly bumps into her first love, Atlas, again. After nearly two years separated, she is elated that for once, time is on their side, and she immediately says yes when Atlas asks her on a date.
But her excitement is quickly hampered by the knowledge that, though they are no longer married, Ryle is still very much a part of her life—and Atlas Corrigan is the one man he will hate being in his ex-wife and daughter’s life.
Prepare to be emotionally unavailable for approx. 8-10 business days.
December’s Pick – Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, by Jenny Bayliss
Don’t miss the Christmas wedding of the year, in Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, by the bestselling author of The Twelve Dates of Christmas, Jenny Bayliss.
Perfect for fans of Beth O’Leary and Josie Silver, the novel is filled with romance and humour and makes for a fantastic Christmas treat if you’re looking for a festive rom-com fix. Featuring an eccentric cast of characters coupled with Jenny’s signature sparkle and warmth, it’s the quintessential cosy winter read we all crave at this time of year.
A city bookshop owner heads to the English countryside for a holiday reunion- only to face her childhood enemy…
A winter wedding of school friends should be the highlight of Nory Noel’s festive calendar. But that group has long since drifted apart, and Nory is dreading the lavish, week-long affair. Still, she supposes, being the only single person means she gets a king-size bed in the idyllic castle venue all to herself.
As the champagne flows, the years roll back and soon the air is alive with old sparks and old tensions. Desperate for a moment of peace, Nory escapes and crashes into Isaac, the castle’s gardener – and her former school rival.
Nory and Isaac have more in common these days than they could ever have imagined. But as she steals more time away to spend with him, Isaac reveals an astonishing secret about his past. Nory is in a unique position to help right this wrong – but uncovering the truth might mean pushing Isaac away once more.
