The New Year amongst book lovers provides the perfect excuse to delve into a tantalising selection of new releases in 2019.

With titles coming from authors old and new, revered and promising, there’s bound to be a book waiting to become your new favourite.

For the YA lovers…

Two Can Keep a Secret

• Karen McManus

From the author of the hugely-popular One of Us Is Lying comes the high school thriller Two Can Keep a Secret. Ellery is forced to move to small town Echo Ridge to live with her grandmother, where her aunt went missing and a homecoming queen was murdered. When another girl goes missing Ellery must unravel the mystery surrounding the town before the body count goes up. (January 10)

 

For sci-fi lovers…

Machines Like Me

• Ian McEwan

When Charlie comes into money, he spends it on a synthetic human called Adam. After co-designing it with Miranda, a student Charlie is in love with and who harbours a dark secret of her own, a love-triangle forms, leaving the three to confront a fundamental moral dilemma. A sure-fire crowd-pleaser for fans of Channel 4’s Humans and Netflix’s Black Mirror, Machines Like Me promises demanding existential questions shrouded by suspenseful sci-fi. (April 18)

 

For romance lovers…

I Owe You One

• Sophie Kinsella

Fixie Farr’s life starts to change when, luck would have it, she receives an IOU from investment banker Sebastian after saving his laptop in a coffee shop. After Fixie cashes it in to get her childhood crush Ryan a job, Fixie and Sebastian only get more and more involved with each other until Fixie is left choosing between the life she feels a duty to maintain and the one she really wants. (February 5)

 

For thriller lovers…

The Girl Before You

• Nicola Rayner

For fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on The Train comes Nicola Rayner’s The Girl Before You. Alice, wife of George Bell, MP, TV personality and notorious ladies’ man, is obsessed with the women of her husband’s past. When she sees one that looks like Ruth, the believed-missing ex-girlfriend of George, Alice becomes embroiled in the mystery of what really happened to Ruth, and how much George really knows about it. (July 11)

 

For fantasy lovers…

Black Leopard, Red Wolf

• Marlon James

Black Leopard, Red Wolf takes places in a world where giants, witches, magic and shape-shifters all exist and where Tracker, a hunter, is tasked with finding a lost boy. In a simultaneously modern and ancient world, inspired by the history and mythology of Africa, Tracker is faced with relentless obstacles and unanswered questions. If James’ artistic scope and vision aren’t enough to entice you, his credentials certainly are: his A Brief History of Seven Killings won the prestigious Man Booker Prize in 2015. (February 28)

 

 

Georgie Wardall

 

Images: Amazon, Penguin, LBA Books, Sophie Kinsella