I love attending events to hear about new books coming along so when this fabulous invitation dropped into my inbox from the lovely Alainna at Orion I was thrilled. Despite my train being delayed 40 minutes, as soon as I walked in to Drink, Shop, Do and was greeted by author Cathy Bramley I knew I was going to have a wonderful time.

In fact, I must apologise for not thanking the Orion team sooner for a brilliant evening on Wednesday. I was giving a talk to a local group on blogging yesterday, before attending a charity event with TV gardener Adam Frost in the evening so I didn’t get chance to write up my thanks.

I picked up my glass of Prosecco, had a chat with a couple of Orion’s lovely team and wandered to see what fantastic books were coming up. What a feast for the eyes!

The first item I collected was the catalogue of releases coming from January – July 2020 and I cannot believe what a wonderful set of books awaits us. With everything from fiction to non-fiction, young adult to adult, Sci-Fi and Fantasy to Women’s Fiction, there is something for every reader in the Orion Publishing Group. If you’d like to look for yourself, the catalogue can be found here.

It was so interesting to hear different publicists enthusing and recommending books and to chat with new to me authors as well as catch up with Veronica Henry, Cathy Bramley and Helen Rolfe amongst others.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to attend for as long as I’d have liked because of the earlier train delay, but I was thrilled to come away with a lovely goody bag and several wonderful books.

The books I have added to mt TBR include:

For Emily by Katherine Slee

A little dedication goes a long way.
That’s why Catriona Robinson, the country’s favourite children’s author, always dedicated her books to those who touched her life the most – not least Emily, her reclusive granddaughter.

Emily never thought too much about these dedications. But when Catriona dies unexpectedly, each one becomes a cryptic clue in a breadcrumb trail that apparently leads to her lost, unpublished manuscript.

It’s a mystery only Emily can solve. But to do so she will have to walk in her grandmother’s footsteps, into the wider world she’s spent her whole life hiding away from . . .

Published on 5th September 2019, For Emily is available for purchase here.

The Family Gift by Cathy Kelly

Freya Abalone has a big, messy, wonderful family, a fantastic career, and a new house.

But that’s on the outside.

On the inside, she’s got Mildred – the name she’s given to that nagging inner critic who tells us all we’re not good enough.

And now Freya’s beloved blended family is under threat. Dan’s first wife Elisa, the glamorous, manipulative woman who happily abandoned her daughter to Freya and Dan’s care and left the country, has elbowed her way back into their lives.

But Freya knows that when life gives you lemons, you throw them right back.

Can Freya put her family – and herself – back together? Find out in Cathy Kelly’s warmest, wisest and funniest book yet…

Published yesterday, 17th October 2019, The Family Gift is available for purchase through these links.

Christmas at the Beach Hut by Veronica Henry

Everyone adores Christmas . . .

Especially Lizzy Kingham. But this year, she is feeling unloved and under-appreciated by her family. The present-buying, decorating and food shopping have all been left to her. So she wonders … what would happen if she ran away and left them to it?

Lizzy heads to her favourite place: a beach hut on the golden sands of Everdene. There she meets an unlikely collection of new friends, all running away from something. But the spirit of Christmas gets under Lizzy’s skin: soon the fairy lights are twinkling and the scent of mulled wine mingles with the sea air.

Back at Pepperpot Cottage, her family are desperate to find her. For Christmas isn’t Christmas without Lizzy. Can they track her down in time and convince her she means the world to them, every day of the year?

Christmas at the Beach Hut will be published on 15th November and is available for pre-order here.

Would Like To Meet by Rachel Winters

Long-suffering assistant Evie Summers will lose her job unless she can convince her film agency’s biggest and most difficult client, Ezra Chester, to finish the script for a Hollywood romcom. The catch? He hasn’t started writing it.

Suffering from ‘writer’s block,’ he will only put pen to paper if singleton Evie can prove to him that you can fall in love like they do in the movies. Forget internet dating, Evie can only meet a man the way that Sally met Harry, or Hugh Grant meets anyone. Cue her entering into one ridiculous romcom scenario after another. But can life ever be like the movies?

Of course, real life is never that straightforward . . .

Out under this cover in ebook on 26th November 2019 and paperback on 30th April 2020, Would Like To Meet is available here.

The Matchmaker by Catriona Innes

For Caitlin Carter, love means business.

She’s taken matchmaking back to basics. There is no swiping left. No creepy location tracker. Definitely no unsolicited pics of areas of the anatomy no one wants to see. She’s made dating great again: personal, patient… and profitable. Her startup is going from strength to strength, with clients wanting to find the love she has with her own husband Harry, and she even has celebrities wanting to use her services…

Caitlin is living the perfect life.

Except it’s all a perfect lie. And Caitlin doesn’t know how long she can keep it up.

In an era of social media and dating apps, when we have never been more connected yet more isolated, The Matchmaker is a story about love, loss and loneliness, and learning to accept your reality.

Published by Orion imprint Trapeze on 28th November 2019, The Matchmaker is available for pre-order here.

The River Home by Hannah Richell

The river can take you home. The river can take you under…

In their ramshackle Somerset home, its gardens running down to the river, the Sorrells have gathered for a last-minute wedding.

Lucy is desperate to reunite her fractured family. Eve is fighting to keep her perfect life together. Their father hovers at the edge of events with his second wife. Their mother, Kit, a famous author whose stories have run dry, still seethes with resentment towards her youngest child. And Margot, who left home eight years ago under a black cloud, is forced to come face to face with her darkness…

As the family come together for a week of celebration and confrontation, their relationships are stretched to breaking point. Can you ever heal the wounds of the past? Or will it always rise up to haunt you – like the echoes of a summer’s night, like the relentless flow of a river…

The River Home will be published on 19th March 2020 and is available for pre-order through these links (and if my proof is anything to go by that cover will be a stunner!)

A Patchwork Family by Cathy Bramley

Love, friendship and family come in all different shapes and sizes…

Gina has been going with the flow for years – she’d rather have an easy life than face any conflict. She runs her childminding business from her cottage at the edge of The Evergreens, a charming Victorian house and home to three octogenarians who have far too much fun for their age.

But when The Evergreens is put up for sale, Gina and the other residents face losing their home. To protect her business and save her elderly friends from eviction, Gina must make a stand and fight for the first time in her life.

As Gina’s ideas for saving The Evergreens get bigger and bolder, she starts to believe it might just be possible. The only thing is, does she believe in herself?

Also published on 19th March 2020, A Patchwork Family is available for pre-order here.

Like A House on Fire by Caroline Hulse

I don’t even have a ‘to be revealed cover’ for this one yet so I’m including Caroline’s previous book, The Adults available through these links!

George and Stella’s marriage is over. They can’t decide exactly when that happened (Was it the coke can? Or that comment about Jurassic Park?), but they both agree that it has.

A couple of months after the separation, Stella’s mother, Margaret “The Force of Nature” Foy sends out invites for her murder mystery anniversary party – with George on the invite list. Stella hasn’t told her parents about the divorce, she couldn’t bring herself to. And with her father’s business shutting down, Margaret’s recent cancer diagnosis, and some very odd behaviour from her older sister Helen, now is clearly not a good time.

All they have to do is make it through the day without their secret being discovered. And in doing so, they may find each other again – or see their past and future both go up in flames…

Like A House on Fire will be published on 30th April and is available for pre-order here.

I’m well aware what a privilege it is to be invited to these events and I know how lucky I am to attend. Once again, I’d like to thank the Orion team for inviting me and I hope Linda’s Book Bag readers find some lovely new reads through this post.