Gap Year by Helen Chislett is an exquisite meditation on change and the aching beauty of letting go. Despite its depth, the narrative is infused with a lightness and a great sense of humour, making it an engaging and enjoyable read. There’s a raw tenderness in Chislett's exploration of love in all its forms—the fierce love of a parent, the push and pull between mother and daughter, the reckless thrill of new beginnings, and the quiet yearning for a life that once felt limitless. Her prose is effortlessly eloquent, capturing both the grandeur and intimacy of Paris with rare authenticity. The city is not just a backdrop; it is a mirror, reflecting both the dazzling possibilities of youth and the quiet regrets of adulthood.

Life Gets In The Way is not a novel; it’s a book of poems, but it is much more than a novella of sonnets. Chris Husband pulls his content from rich and diverse life experiences. He is reflective and candid about his past, sharing humorous and poignant moments. Expect to feel Husband’s shyness and humiliation as a young boy, but despite shyness, he finds joy in creative activities with his siblings. Early exposure to storytelling and performance laid the groundwork for his later poetic pursuits.

Cee Cee Evans has one hell of an imagination, or at least I hope it’s imagination, because this murder mystery whodunnit tale is as gritty as they come. Don’t give this book to your granny unless your gran is Joan Collins or Sylvia Kristel. Expect lots of swearing, sex and other unprintable words beginning with S. If you’re looking for a complex whodunnit, then you’re in the right place and like all good mysteries, it’s never the person you think it is.

Lunarmancer by Jake Bennett is a fantastical journey that weaves shape-shifting, telepathy, mind reading, transformation, and ghosts into a detailed story filled with depth and mind-expanding concepts in a quest to find The Anodyne Stone. Readers are introduced to a world where curses affect teleporters, and creatures with no arms and legs, referred to as "foul beasts," roam freely to live rent-free in our imagination.

Motherhood by Ameena Tabassum is a novel about precisely that. Motherhood explores the complexities of motherhood through the story of Lucy, a fifteen-year-old girl dealing with a troubled family life and the son of our protagonist, Adib, who is working through his own problems, his parents' ill-fated marriage breakup, and general teenage turmoil.

The Fourth Beginning by Paul Georgiou is a sardonic fantasy novel about Adam and Eve Smith's search for understanding after their daughter's tragic death. Although the book is grief fiction, it isn't misery-lit. Strangely, although the subject is sad, The Fourth Beginning is uplifting and hopeful.

Jill Fitzgerald-O’Connor is not just a dressmaker! That statement, dear reader, is an understatement, to say the least. Fitzgerald-O’Connor is an entire list of adjectives: strong, opinionated, talented, creative, resilient, forthright, intuitive and considerate. If you love fashion and are interested in history and commerce, this book is an informative real-life narrative that you could easily convert into a small business reference manual.

On The Ledge by Naomi Clarisse is a young adult novella that delves into the life of Sam Robinson, a teenager who seemingly has it all—He’s an athlete with an attractive and attentive girlfriend, a seemly happy family, an expensive home, and popularity at school.

You know, a novella is good when it starts with the line ‘undercurrent of hatred has reached a whole new level after the death of Masha Amini, a twenty-two-year-old university student who was savagely beaten by the morality police.’ And ends with ‘Men! Well, screw them all. I order another Margarita.’