New to Dot Scribbles Shelves

I have received so many great books recently! I only have a week to go until the baby is due so I am trying to read as quickly as possible and hopefully I will get back into it quite quickly once she has arrived. Anyway here are some of the books that I have received recently, let me know your thoughts on any of them:

Pear Shaped by Stella Newman (Avon, 26th January) Sophie Klein walks into a bar one Friday night and her life changes. She meets James Stephens; charismatic, elusive, and with a hosiery model ex who casts a long, thin shadow over their burgeoning relationship. He's clever, funny and shares her greatest pleasure in life: to eat and drink slightly too much and then have a little lie down. Sophie's instinct tells her James is too good to be true- and he is. An exploration of love, heartbreak and lots of food. Pear Shaped is in turns smart, laugh-out-loud funny and above all, recognizable to women everywhere.


All the Single Ladies by Jane Costello (Simon and Schuster, 2nd February) Samantha Brooks' boyfriend Janie is a loving , intelligent and, while he isn't perfect, he's perfect for her- in every way except one: he's a free spirit. And after six years in one place. doing a job he despises, he is compelled to do something that will tear apart his relationship with Same: book a one-way flight to South America. But Sam isn't giving up without a fight. She has three months to persuade him to do the right thing. So, with the help of her friends Ellie and Jen, she hatches a plan to make him realize what he's giving up. A plan that involves dirty tricks, plotting and a single aim: to win him back. But by the time the tortured Jamie finally wakes up to what he's lost, a gorgeous new pretender has entered Sam's life. Which begs the question... does she still want him back?

The Angel at No. 33 by Polly Williams (Headline Review, 2nd February) Sophie cannot leave the people she loves. Her husband, Ollie- a man who once watered a houseplant for a year before realising it was plastic- is lost without her. Their son Freddie is so little. And her friend Jenny? There's something she desperately needs to know before it's too late.


Shadow Heir by Richelle Mead (Bantam Books, 2nd February) The Otherworld, a mystic land inextricably linked to our own- and balanced precariously on one woman's desperate courage...
Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markam strives to keep the mortal realm safe from trespassing entities. But as the Thorn Land's prophecy-haunted queen, there's no refuge for her and her soon-to-be-born children when a mysterious blight begins to devastate the Otherworld... The spell-driven source of the blight isn't the only challenge to Eugenie's instincts. Fairy King Dorian is sacrificing everything to help, but Eugenie can't trust the synergy drawing them back together. The uneasy truce between her and her shape-shifter ex-lover Kiyo is endangered by secrets he can't- or won't- reveal. And as a formidable force rises to threaten the human world, Eugenie must use her own cursed fate as a weapon- and risk the ultimate sacrifice...


The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich (Ebury Press, 16th February) Hannah Levi is famed throughout Venice for her skills as a midwife but, as a Jew, the law forbids her from attending a Christian woman. However, when the Conti di Padovani appears at her door in the dead of the night to demand her services, Hannah's compassion is sorely tested. And with the handsome reward he is offering she could ransom back her imprisoned husband. But if she fails in her endeavours to save mother and child, will she be able to save herself, let alone her husband?

Between a Mother and her Child by Elizabeth Noble (Michael Joseph, 16th February) For Maggie and Bill it was love at first sight... One impulsive wedding later and with the arrival of three perfect children, Jake, Aly and Stan, the Barrett family seem to have it all. Until the day their world stops turning. When Jake dies suddenly, they're swept away on a tide of grief that fractures Maggie and Bill's marriage. She and the children are left clinging to the wreckage of their family. And they need help, because in her grief Maggie is in danger of losing Aly and Stan too. Enter Kate, housekeeper, companion and shoulder to cry on. She's here to pick up the pieces and fix what isn't completely broken. But can Maggie trust Kate? And why is Kate so keen to help? When Bill falls for another woman, Maggie realizes she will have to fight to put her family back together- but will they still want her?

77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz (Harper Collins) The Pendleton stands on the summit of Shadow Hill, a palace built in the late 19th century as a tycoon's dream home. But its grandeur has been scarred by episodes of madness, suicide and mass murder. Since being converted into luxury apartments in the '70's, however, the Pendleton has been at peace. For it's fortunate residents- among them ex-marine Bailey Hawk, songwriter Twyla Trahern and her young son Winny- the Pendleton is a sanctuary, its dark past all but forgotten. But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in strange tongues, not-quite human figures lurk in the basement, elevators plunge into unknown depths. It seems that whatever drove past occupants to their unspeakable fates is at work again. As nightmare visions become real, a group of extraordinary individuals hold the key to humanity's destiny.