This time last year I was eagerly awaiting the hardback release of my debut novel, The Game is Murder. It had been a long and strange journey to publication, and I had always seen the release day as a final destination, and the culmination of my efforts.

With a Rooney-esque penchant for frustrating communication styles, you'll like this book if you enjoy wanting to shake characters through the pages. Be prepared to unravel along with them.

Don’t worry, the action and jokes and vampires didn’t go away. It is, I hope, a page-turner, and still something I’d be delighted to pick up in a book shop. Fingers crossed you might be too.

Fast-paced and exciting, this book grabbed me from the first chapter. With a split narrative that explores the messy past between Juliette and Dominic, we as the readers join the dangerous world of Formula 1 driving.

Perhaps, though, it shouldn’t have done. A writer is a reader first, after all, and books, their existence, have been a major part of my life.

That said, a good story is always a delight. I love the storytelling of writers like Anne Patchett, Isabel Allende and Colm Toibin, in which atmosphere and plot combine for a compelling narrative.

I didn’t really know what I wanted to write or what shape it would take but I knew (or hoped) that if I connected with the right people, things would come together.

I started to write this novel on a dare to myself - to write the thing that most scared me. As a chronically ill writer, I’d always skirted around the topic of late-stage disease with my first two (unpublished) novels. to Brideshead Revisited, they occupy such a space in literature — and then you get older and realise that, if you’re working-class, you wouldn’t be one of the main characters, you’d have been below stairs.

Set in Osaka, we follow the story of Anna as she ventures into a new lift teaching at a Japanese school in Osaka. Old wounds from a vanished mother rise to the surface as she searches for her missing friend, Loll.

But not everything is smooth sailing. Care turns into heartbreak as external forces meddle and spew venom, striving to keep them apart. Will the forces win out or will their love overcome their differences?

Beautifully crafted through a dual narrative as we unravel both the murder at sea and the history of DI Rachel Harlow.

If you’re looking for a book that will make you laugh out loud and fall in love with the main character, this is it.

If you love a twisting, atmospheric thriller packed with secrets, lies, and characters you'll quickly become invested in, then this is one for your summer TBR.

Mr Sidhu’s Post Office is the ultimate heart-warming novel, centring around Mr Sidhu, or David, as he's known to those in the community, who runs the local post office.

It’s a portrait of American motherhood and survival and an unflinching exploration of the consequences of overturning Roe Vs Wade

A genre-defying debut that bends sci-fi into a literary immigrant story that speaks to our modern ideas of identity in a unique and thought-provoking way.

I love stories that explore working class community dynamics, especially those told from the perspective of children.

I grew up loving stories about these big houses, everything from The Secret Garden to Brideshead Revisited, they occupy such a space in literature — and then you get older and realise that, if you’re working-class, you wouldn’t be one of the main characters, you’d have been below stairs.

I’ve always been fascinated by moral ambiguity, by the secrets each of us hold and by the lies we are prepared to tell. For me, these are always the most intriguing stories to read and watch.

Family and heartbreak stretch through the eternity of this story as one man finds himself jumping through time.

A captivating study of human relationships and the impact of social media on people jumping to conclusions. Every step closer to the truth turned my stomach into a mess of knots as I worried for Odette and her safety.