Strange Pictures

 By: Ukestu  

Location: FIC UKE

Genre: Mystery

This CLEVER bestseller is all the rage in Japan-and now I know why!

A Japanese mystery bestseller, revolving around a series of creepy drawings, in which the reader is the detective - from the  sensation Uketsu.

A series of drawings made by a young woman before her death.

A child's disturbing picture of his home.

A desperate sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments.

Each contains a chilling warning.

Each reveals a terrible secret, hidden in plain sight.

Uketsu's eerie mysteries have captivated millions of readers. Can you find the clues in these strange pictures and uncover the sinister truth that connects them all?

"A quirky, minimalist mystery novel that at times feels more like a logical demonstration than fiction. It is a book that invites you to be a detective. The innovative use of pictures is surprisingly more than a gimmick. It makes you feel like you have the entire body of evidence in your hands." Flo

The Wycherleys

 By: Annaliese Avery  

Location: FIC AVE

Genre: Romantasy 

Recommended by Mrs Zani Button

Fall head over broomstick in love with this swoon-worthy, witchy romantic fantasy, perfect for fans of Twin Crowns, Divine Rivals and Stephanie Garber.

For the Kingdom. For the magic. And for love . . . Seventeen-year-old Aurelia Wycherley is entering her debutante season as a witch. Aurelia should be excited about finding the perfect match to tether her magic to. But her magic is cursed – dark, dangerous, and not the kind that her peers want to match with – and, without a tether, she faces losing her magic completely. But when Aurelia learns that enigmatic, aloof Jules, a member of arch enemy family the Nightlys, is searching for a way that a witch can keep their magic without tethering, she realises he may be her only hope. A forbidden alliance is formed . . . but as they navigate the Magical Season with its glamoured balls and perilous trials, they uncover dark forces that threaten their families and the magical world they live in. Expect family secrets, generational curses, forbidden romance, gorgeous ballgowns, bribery, extortion, trespass, magic and kissing . . . lots of kissing.

Mia reviews this book

 Such a lovely surprise, this was! I went into this book completely blind, with zero expectations, and ended up pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.

Set around a debutante ball where witches are meant to find their magical match, the story follows Aurelia Wycherley, a young woman from a prominent witch family who’s been saddled with a curse on her magic that makes her an unattractive prospect for any eligible partner, putting her firmly on the outside of the social scene.

Aurelia was genuinely a fun protagonist to follow! As a witch dealing with a curse that marks her as an outcast, she’s handled with a lot of care, and I really liked how her kind, thoughtful personality came through on the page. The book has a very sweet, lightly humorous tone that makes it an easy and enjoyable read. The MMC, Jules, is introduced early on, and while he comes off as a slightly starchy, mini–Mr. Darcy type at first, his interest in Aurelia is clear from page one. Like Darcy, it’s shown in a subtle way that I really appreciated.

Their dynamic develops nicely, and I felt the book built a real sense of camaraderie between them, letting their connection lean more toward a slower burn, which worked well for me.

I did feel that the latter half of the book, where many of the overarching plot points come together, got a little convoluted. This led to an ending that felt slightly rushed in its execution, though it didn’t significantly mar my overall enjoyment.

The book really shined when depicting Aurelia’s friendships, her relationships, and the fun fake-courting scheme between her and Jules. Overall, this is very much a breezy read, and I think readers looking for fun historical shenanigans mixed with balls, an easy-to-follow magical world, and an adorable touch of Regency-style matchmaking will have a great time with it.

Witch Trial

 By: Harriet Tyce   

Location: FIC TYC

Genre: Thriller

Art cover goodness

"As we barrel and twist the way to the conclusion of this outstanding psychological thriller, the ending is oh so clever. What a great twist… Unless of course… It’s true… LOL!!"

Two teenage girls. One murdered classmate.

And a modern-day witch trial that will divide the nation.

When 18-year-old Christian Shaw is found dead in an Edinburgh park, the city reels - and the shock only deepens when police charge her best friends, Eliza Lawson and Isobel Smyth, with her murder.

As social media explodes and headlines scream for justice, rumours of bullying spiral into something whispers of rituals, obsession, and a teenage pact gone wrong.

Matthew Phillips, a respected heart surgeon, is reluctantly called for jury duty on the case. But as the trial unfolds - and the girls reveal a chilling defence no one saw coming - he begins to question the motives, the evidence, even his own judgement.

Who's telling the truth? Who can be trusted?
And what really happened to Christian Shaw?

Let the Witch Trial begin . . 

Review by Kevin

This was such a brilliant novel and what a fantastic ending!

Matthew Phillips is called up for jury duty and, despite the fact that he could have been excused due to his job as a heart surgeon, he is keen to remain on the jury clearly trying to avoid issues both at work and in his personal life.

However, when Matthew realises he is on the Witch Trial - two girls on trial for murdering their school friend, who claim to be witches - he starts to regret this choice. And when he, himself, begins to get drawn deeper into the trial, there are concerns over his own sanity.

This was different from what I have read from Tyce before, very in depth in terms of the inner workings of the legal system in Scotland as well as what goes on in a jury room. Behind all the technical aspects of the trial, we begin to see the unravelling of Matthew and whilst, to me, he isn't the most likeable character, it was an uncomfortable and unsettling read.

The ending is what makes the book so special though. I have a feeling that some people may not like it and it could split opinions but I thought it was fantastic.

Homebound

 By: Portia Elan  

Location: FIC ELA

Genre: Sci Fi, LGBGT, Fantasy, Historical- ALL GENRES!

so it is Genre Bending!

Six hundred years. Five interlocking lives. One computer game.

And the many paths that can lead us home.

It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. But for now she has work to do: her programmer uncle, the only person who understood her, has left her a half-finished game to complete.

What Becks is coding will outlast her by centuries and shape the lives of a scientist, an astronaut and a desperate pirate captain in ways she cannot imagine. It will connect these four pioneering women across centuries, vast oceans and far-distant planets and introduce them to a remarkable robot destined to gather together this disparate crew.

Homebound is a coming out and coming-of-age story, a wild and precarious sea adventure, a space odyssey. As it slips through time, loss, creativity, found family, it journeys deep into humanity’s future and capacity for love.

Review by Misty Reads

This is a wonderful book. Technically a literary sci-fi, but really more of a genre-bending story. It’s set across nostalgic 1980s scenes, the not-too-distant 2080s, the centuries that follow, and finally a far distant future nearly 600 years later which strangely feels nostalgic and reads almost like a medieval fantasy.

It’s an ambitious epic, written incredibly well, and clearly well thought out and executed. There are four main characters, but it never feels like too many. I grew very attached to all of them that is a sign of how strong the character writing is. These different POVs and multiple timelines gradually weave together to make sense of the whole, all while asking profound questions about where human civilisation is headed and what it means to exist. When the planet is destroyed, your home gone, and the future uncertain, what do we live for?

Some of the technical elements went over my head (coding, AI and other technological references ) but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the story. It’s not a five-star read for me, only because I didn’t feel the deep emotional impact I expected from such an epic. Still, the ending left a gentle warmth in my heart. That was lovely.

I’d recommend this to people who enjoy:

- Kazuo Ishiguro’s books or other literary sci-fi focused on human connection and love
- Adventure stories
- Books set in the 1980s
- Found family themes

Kill Billionaire

 By: Anders Lustgarten  

Location: FIC LUS

Genre: Thriller

Why did I buy this- one reason only- the Cover!

 Alex said this: Read it. Revolt. Rebel. Redistribute the wealth. 👊

This is a fantastic story, full of humour, realness, and a driving narrative that we should fight back and stop allowing ourselves to be walked all over by those that choose to control our world with their riches.

Perhaps one reason not enough people kill billionaires is it’s actually quite tricky...

An electrifying, ultra-contemporary heist, a wild and hilarious story that is also dangerously prescient.

When her home is destroyed in wildfires, fourteen-year-old Australian outback genius Kayla Connolly decides to hunt down the culprits of climate change: billionaires.

She teams up with Mr P, a giant ex-soldier from Tuvalu whose home is being flooded by rising sea levels. Together, they find ingenious ways to kill a property developer building on protected wetlands and a mining company CEO poisoning the earth with toxic chemicals. They also find an unexpected ally in Nancy, a wealthy elderly woman with a shocking past.

The trio’s mission soon develops a life of its own, taking them first to California to crack billionaire tech bros and then to London for superrich oil executives, spawning a global movement along the way. In pursuit are the FBI and Detective Sergeant Kate Anderson of Scotland Yard, but Kate is having doubts about whether Kayla is even in the wrong. Will Kayla be able to stay ahead of the game and pull off one final, remarkable hit?

Japanese Gothic

 By: Kylie Lee Baker  

Location: FIC BAK

Genre: Horror

It’s sensational, eerie, mind-bending, emotionally layered, and so beautifully written that you feel every whisper, every shadow, every blade. I wholeheartedly recommend it. I’m certain this will stand as one of the best fantasy horror releases of 2026

Outstanding review by Nilifer Ozmikek

A mind-exploding, bone-shivering gothic nightmare wrapped in Japanese mythology, samurai legacy, and time-bending terror — this book is an exquisitely strange, intoxicating, and utterly original experience. It’s the kind of story that freezes your blood like black ice while melting your last remaining brain cells with its wild, labyrinthine twists. If you’re open to something daringly unique, unsettling, and beautifully crafted, this novel delivers a literary punch straight to the soul.

At its core, the story follows two young people separated by centuries yet bound by a single impossible door — a door that threads together their tragedies, their families, and their destinies. The same house. The same threshold. Two different eras.

The first timeline begins in October 2026. Lee Turner is spiraling after a horrifying blackout: he’s convinced he killed his college roommate James… yet he can’t remember how, why, or what he did with the body. With panic clawing at his throat and pills numbing his memories, Lee flees to Japan, where his father has just purchased an isolated house swallowed by sword ferns and wild ginger. All he can do is wait — wait for the police to call, wait for the body to surface, wait for the truth he fears will crush him.

But the house has other plans for him.

While Lee tries to navigate the suffocating tension with his father and his father’s unsettling girlfriend — who keeps whispering horrific folktales like they’re family heirlooms — something truly impossible happens. A window appears where no window has ever been. And behind it stands a young Japanese girl holding a sword, her expression sharp enough to slice through the barrier of time.

Her name is Sen.

Sen lives in 1877, in the same house, with her mother, her brother, and her samurai father — a man exiled after the fall of the samurai and hunted by imperial soldiers. Sen trains relentlessly under his harsh expectations. Honor is her currency. Obedience is survival. Earning her father’s approval means everything.

When she realizes she is a ghost from the past — and that her death is only days away — Sen accepts her fate with a warrior's discipline. But she seeks one final thing: an honorable end worthy of her father’s praise.

As their worlds collide through the doorway, Lee and Sen form a fragile, haunting connection. Lee wants her help to reach the spirit of his mother, who vanished in Cambodia and was presumed dead. If he can connect with Sen, perhaps he can connect with the one ghost who has haunted him since childhood.

But digging for truth — in any century — always comes with a price.

And sometimes the secrets waiting behind the veil are far more monstrous than the horrors already consuming their lives.
The real terror isn’t the ghosts. It’s the truth.

Overall, while a few twists are somewhat foreseeable, the atmosphere of walking through a fog-choked forest with no map is the book’s greatest strength. The slow burn works beautifully, and the integration of Japanese folklore — the legend of Urashima Tarō, the sorrowful tale of Otohime — adds a shimmering, haunting layer that binds everything together. The mythology doesn’t just enhance the story; it becomes its heartbeat.

I adored the chilling ambiance, the exploration of dysfunctional family dynamics, and the aching loneliness that drives these characters toward each other. There’s a raw fragility beneath the terror that makes this novel more than horror — it becomes a tragic meditation on identity, devotion, and the dangerous things we inherit.

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From Sunday Times bestselling author Kylie Lee Baker comes a wildly inventive take on the much-loved haunted house horror interwoven with Japanese mythology, where two people living centuries apart discover a door between their worlds.

2025
Lee can't remember exactly where he hid the body, but he can remember the blood. Hiding out at his father's centuries-old home in Japan, Lee knows something is wrong with him, and he knows it has something to do with his mother's disappearance almost a decade ago.

1877
A female samurai, Sen, stalks the borders of her home to protect her family from slaughter after the abolition of the samurai class. She's not sure how they'll ever survive, not without her father, who has returned from war with a different soul behind his eyes.

When Lee and Sen find one another through a door between their worlds, they're both looking for answers. But what they find in the creaking old house they share is beyond what either of them could imagine . .

Wild Reverence

 By: Rebecca Ross   

Location: FIC ROS

Genre: Romantasy

 It is a prequel but can be read as a stand alone

I didn’t just read Wild Reverence — I lived inside it. From the first page, I felt that quiet, undeniable pull that only a truly special book has, the kind that makes you forget the world around you. Rebecca Ross took me on a journey that was at once intimate and epic, and I came out of it both breathless and strangely healed, like I’d been walking through someone else’s myth and found pieces of myself along the way. Nilufer

Born ​in the firelit domain of the under realm, Matilda is the youngest goddess of her clan, blessed with humble messenger magic. But in a land where gods often kill each other to steal power and alliances break as quickly as they are forged, Matilda must come of age sooner than most. She may be known to carry words and letters through the realms, but she holds a secret she must hide from even her dearest of allies to ensure her survival. And to complicate matters . . . there is a mortal boy who dreams of her, despite the fact they have never met in the waking world.

Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life―begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. When his request went unanswered, Vincent moved on, becoming the hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him.

As Fate would have it, Matilda and Vincent were destined to find each other beyond dreams. There may be a chance for Matilda to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, but at immense sacrifice. She will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.

Kaila- review

This book made me believe in soulmates.

Classic romance and longing is back bitches. Romance, lore, and original magic mixed with beautifully poetic prose that feels timeless. I feel like we bottled the perfect 1920s classic romance in a bottle with fantasy. This was everything .