If I haven’t been eating, napping, some sort of “homeschooling” or binge-watching tv programmes during lockdown, I’ve been reading. I read a lot anyway, but it’s been lovely to just sit back in the gorgeous sunshine we’ve had over the past few weeks and devour a book in a matter of days…and then wake up with slight sunburn having fallen asleep in said sun…doh! OR, seeing as it’s tipping down outside now, snuggling up on the sofa with a book, a blanket, a paned and a slab of Paul’s homemade Banana Bread. It’s better than mine…there, I said it Paul. ;)

You know it’s a good book when you find yourself saying to the Bois “I’m just going to go for nap, wake me up in an hour or so please”, {I would read…but obviously, it finished with a nap!} , or even worse, “Yes, you can go on the PS4!”…or heading to bed an hour or so earlier so that you can get through a few chapters.

So, in no particular order, here are some books I have enjoyed recently…

The Girl Before by JP Delaney :: “A wonderful portrayal of psychological obsession at its creepy best”. Jane stumbles on the rental opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to live in an ultra-minimalist house designed by an enigmatic architect, on condition she abides by a list of exacting rules. But when she discovers the previous tenant, Emma, met a mysterious death there, Jane starts to wonder if her own story will be a re-run of the girl before.

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The Cactus by Sarah Haywood :: “A funny and moving novel of a woman learning to let go”. Family and colleagues find her prickly and hard to understand – but Susan makes perfect sense to herself. Age 45, she thinks her life is perfect. She has a London flat which is ideal for one; a steady job that suits her passion for logic; and a personal arrangement providing cultural and other, more intimate, benefits.

Yet suddenly faced with the loss of her mother and, implausibly, with the possibility of becoming a mother herself, Susan’s greatest fear is being realised: she is losing control. And things can only get worse … at least in Susan’s eyes.

Apparently, this is soon to be a Netflix Original starring Reese Witherspoon. Fingers crossed it’s good, I loved her in Big Little Lies and Little Fires Everywhere!

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The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena :: “The fast-paced, addictive No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller and the overall bestselling novel of 2017″. Your neighbour told you that she didn’t want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn’t stand her crying. Your husband said it would be fine. After all, you only live next door. You’ll have the baby monitor and you’ll take it in turns to go back every half hour. Your daughter was sleeping when you checked on her last. But now, as you race up the stairs in your deathly quiet house, your worst fears are realized. She’s gone. You’ve never had to call the police before. But now they’re in your home, and who knows what they’ll find there.

I finished this this morning…having only started it the other day…and I definitely didn’t nap with this one, it’s THAT good! Read it.

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Your Perfect Year by Charlotte Lucas :: A man consumed by a meaningless life is going to do something he’s never considered doing before. He’s going to enjoy the day…For hyper-particular publishing heir Jonathan Grief, the day starts like any other—with a strict morning fitness regimen that’ll keep his divorced, easily irritated, cynical, forty-two-year-old self in absolutely flawless physical condition. But all it takes to put a crimp in his routine is one small annoyance. Someone has left a leather-bound day planner with the handwritten title Your Perfect Year in his spot on his mountain bike at his fitness course! Determined to discover its owner, Jonathan opens the calendar to find that someone known only as “H.” has filled it in with suggestions, tasks, and affirmative actions for each day. The more he devotes himself to locating the elusive H., the deeper Jonathan is drawn into someone else’s rich and generous narrative—and into an attitude adjustment he desperately needs. He may have ended up with a perfect year by accident, but it seems fate has set Jonathan on a path toward healing, feeling, and maybe even loving again…if only he can meet the stranger who’s changing his life one day at a time.

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The Mothers by Sarah J Naughton :: “The perfect dose of thrills and suspense, this will keep you engrossed to the very end”. FIVE WOMEN. They meet at their NCT Group. The only thing they have in common is they’re all pregnant. FIVE SECRETS. Three years later, they are all good friends. Aren’t they? ONE MISSING HUSBAND. Now the police have come knocking. Someone knows something. THE TROUBLE WITH SECRETS IS THAT SOMEONE ALWAYS TELLS…

This was another page-turner and kept me guessing until the very last page.

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The Flat Share by Beth O’Leary :: The Sunday Times Top Five Bestseller. Tiffy and Leon share a flat. Tiffy and Leon share a bed. Tiffy and Leon have never met…Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time. But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window…

A favourite rom-com of mine – loved it!

Currently reading Life by Lu Yao and next on my hit list: Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, The Lending Library by Aliza Fogelson and The Penguin Lessons by Tom Mitchell.

Tell me some books you’ve read and loved recently! I could do with adding a couple more to my Wish List.