Fun summer reads

The holidays are coming soon (yay, one month to go!), and if you've been waiting a while since your last one, your brain probably resembles something like...hmm, I'm thinking pan drippings left out overnight. Burnt crunchy bits included, if you're feeling particularly fried.

At this time of year, it's nice not to have to think too much about what you're reading. Your mind should just drift peacefully on a soothing, gentle sea of words as it washes you along. There are two kinds of book that do this:

1) Action novels.
You know the ones I mean. The ones where everything follows a certain pattern: bad guys, good guys, no doubting who's who, and the good guy always - always wins. There's a girl somewhere too, so the hero can prove how hot he is in every way. Stand up, Clive Cussler and Lee Child.

2) Romances.
Don't need to spell this one out. Some can be erotic, some can be screwball (whoops, no pun intended), and some can be "sweet" like a Nicholas Sparks. Whatever you're into, you know pretty much exactly what you're getting. Like a Griffins sampler.

So here is a list of new and forthcoming books that might just put the sauce on your chips this summer.

Fifty Bales of Hay - Rachael Treasure

Just love the title of this one! Saddle up for a collection of "agricultural erotica" from Australia, featuring lots of luscious cowboys, cheeky farmhands and fun with a stock and a whip. Whoa, Nelly.









Friends and Rivals - Tilly Bagshawe

Record label Jester boasts some of the hottest musicians on the planet, but their shining star is super-diva Kendall Bryce - the girl with the voice of an angel and the attitude from hell. To the world it seems like owners and old college friends, Jack and Ivan, are living the dream - until the betrayal. Jack has no choice but to walk away from Jester and start up his own label and with the help of his own new discovery - the talented, beautiful and sweet Ava Klein - he is ready to take on Ivan. As passions rise and the desire to win becomes all-consuming, the two young and brilliant pop beauties and the two bitter ex-friends race for the Christmas number one record.


Dirty Little Secret - Jon Stock
Described as one for fans of Jason Bourne and James Bond. Salim Dhar, the world's most wanted terrorist, has disappeared after an audacious attack on an American target in the UK. The CIA believes Daniel Marchant, renegade MI6 officer, was involved. But Marchant has a bigger secret: Dhar has agreed to work for MI6. In return, Marchant must help him with a final strike against America. Should Britain sign up to this Faustian pact or hunt them both down? Fast and furious with the inevitable romance thrown in.

Threat Vector - Tom Clancy and Mark Greaney
Jack Ryan has only just moved back into the Oval Office when he is faced with a new international threat. An aborted coup in China has left President Wei Zhen Lin with no choice but to agree with the expansionist policies of General Su Ke Qiang. They have declared the South China Sea a protectorate and are planning an invasion of Taiwan. A new breed of powerful Chinese anti-ship missile endangers the US Navy's plans to protect the island. Meanwhile, Chinese cyberwarfare experts have launched a devastating attack on America. Jack Ryan, Jr. and his colleagues at the Campus may be just the wild card that his father needs to stack the deck. There's just one problem: someone knows about the off-the-books intelligence agency and threatens to blow their cover sky high.

It Happened in Venice - Molly Hopkins
For fans of sweet and funny romances. Evie has a handsome fiance and a fantastic job that takes her to fashionable Dublin, in-vogue Marrakech, cool Amsterdam and romantic Paris. But her fiance hates her job and her flatmate hates her fiance. And when an unexpected event strikes the epicentre of her happiness, Evie is driven to gin and tonic. If she doesn't sort herself out, her liver and her bank manager will hate her. So when she's offered a luxury trip to the sensual city of Venice, with its shifting silver canals and rose and vanilla hued architecture, Evie jumps at the chance. Four days in the city of light and love is exactly what she needs. The sumptuous Grand Hotel, the gondolas, the wine, the Italian men...But within hours of Evie's arrival, her life is poised to change for ever...

Newton's Fire - Will Adams

Luke Hayward is adrift. Blacklisted out of academia, he is in no position to refuse when a client asks for his expert help in recovering some lost Isaac Newton papers. But a chance discovery in a dusty attic plunges Luke into a race to uncover the truth behind some seemingly random scribblings - a race which pits Luke against a fundamentalist madman with dangerously powerful friends. Luke discovers connections between Oxford, London and the Old City of Jerusalem in a breathless chase to uncover a secret hidden in the eccentric ramblings of a mathematical genius; a secret that, in the wrong hands, could be used to spark the holy war to end all holy wars.

The Husband List - Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly

A historical romance that evokes the glittering world of the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts. New York City, 1894. Caroline Maxwell would like nothing more than to join her brother, Eddie, and his friend, Jack Culhane, on their adventures. While they are off buying up businesses and building wildly successful careers, Caroline's stuck at home frightening off the men her mother hopes will ask for her hand, like the questionable Lord Bremerton. She longs for adventure, passion, love, and most of all, Jack, an Irish-American with new money and no title. But Caroline's dark hair, brilliant eyes and quick wit have Jack understanding just why it is people fall in love.

The Hunters - Chris Kuzneski
A team of renegades - an ex-military leader, a historian, a computer whiz, a weapons expert and a thief - financed by a billionaire philanthropist are tasked with finding a vast treasure lost nearly a century ago. Fearing a German victory in World War I, the Romanians signed a deal with the Russians to safeguard their national treasures. In 1916 two trains full of gold and the most precious objects of the Romanian state - paintings, jewellery from the Royal family, ancient Dacien artifacts - were sent to the underground vaults in the Kremlin, only to be lost after the Russian Revolution. With a haul valued at over $3.5 billion, everyone wants to claim the vast treasure, but its location has remained a mystery - until now.

Ultimatum - Simon Kernick

8am: an explosion rocks a London cafe. Minutes later a call is made to a local radio station: 'We've just detonated a bomb. Another will explode shortly to prove what we are capable of.' The government has until midnight to meet all of the terrorist demands before a far greater attack takes place. Sixteen hours is all DC Tina Boyd and Mike Bolt have to find and stop the killers - before it's too late.







Bianca - Bertrice Small
Florentine silk merchant Giovanni Pietro d'Angelo and his wife want nothing more than to marry their daughters to wealthy men of distinction. But when their son's dangerous indiscretion implicates him in a tragic accident, it is their eldest daughter who must pay the price. Blackmailed by the powerful and debauched Sebastiano Rovere, the Pietro d'Angelos must give beautiful Bianca in marriage to Rovere to buy his silence. It is the shocking murder of her husband that allows her to find the possibility of love at last. But Florentine society would never approve of the man she's chosen: Prince Amir, grandson of Memhet the Conqueror. Two passionate lovers...two different cultures...two worlds determined to keep them apart.

Do enjoy, won't you?