Return to Valetto
by Dominic Smith

A nearly abandoned Italian village, the family that stayed, and long-buried secrets from World War II.

On a hilltop in Umbria sits Valetto. Once a thriving village-and a hub of resistance and refuge during World War II-centuries of earthquakes, landslides and the lure of a better life have left it neglected. Only ten residents remain, including the widows Serafino - three eccentric sisters and their steely centenarian mother - who live quietly in their medieval villa. Then their nephew and grandson, Hugh, a historian, returns.

But someone else has arrived before him, laying claim to the cottage where Hugh spent his childhood summers. The unwelcome guest is the captivating and no-nonsense Elisa Tomassi, who asserts that the family patriarch, Aldo Serafino, a resistance fighter whom her own family harboured, gave the cottage to them in gratitude. Like so many threads of history, this revelation unravels a secret - a betrayal, a disappearance and an unspeakable act of violence - that has impacted Valetto across generations. Who will answer for the crimes of the past?

Becoming Mrs Mulberry
by Jackie French

The once impoverished medical student Agnes Glock is now the fabulously wealthy Mrs Mulberry. Her estate in the mountains is magnificent, a haven for those too ravaged by the Great War to cope with the society that first condemned them to battle and which now shuns them.

The War has, however, stolen Agnes's chance to graduate as a doctor, as well as the fiance she adored. Her husband, Douglas Mulberry, remains shellshocked and unable to speak. Their scandalous marriage is a farce, an act of kindness to keep Douglas's fortune from his uncle's grasp.

A chance visit to a circus brings about a mystery in the form of a fairylike child whose guardians claim was brought up by dingoes.

The child cannot speak and seems deformed. But Agnes is inexplicably drawn to her and believes she can be cured. The decision to save the child will bring Agnes's lost fiance into her life again, as well as awaken the love of her husband who finds his voice as the three try to solve the mystery of the 'dingo girl'. Agnes has put aside her own life and the dreams she once had. But now she has choices, with the main question the hardest: Who is Mrs Agnes Mulberry?

Did I Ever Tell You This?
by Sam Neill

By his own account, his career has been a series of unpredictable turns of fortune.

Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, he emigrated to New Zealand at the age of seven. His family settled in Dunedin on the South Island, but young Sam was sent away to boarding school in Christchurch, where he was hopeless at sports and discovered he enjoyed acting.

But how did you become an actor in New Zealand in the 1960 and 1970s where there was no film industry?

After university he made documentary films while also appearing in occasional amateur productions of Shakespeare.

In 1977 he took the lead in Sleeping Dogs, the first feature made in New Zealand in more than a decade, a project that led to a major role in Gillian Armstrong’s celebrated My Brilliant Career.

And after that Sam Neill found his way, sometimes by accident, into his own brilliant career.

He has worked around the world, an actor who has moved effortlessly from blockbuster to art house to TV, from Dr Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park movies to The Piano and Peaky Blinders.

A Man and his Pride
by Luke Rutledge

Despite coming out years ago, twenty-six-year-old Sean Preston has never been one to shout his sexuality from the rooftops. When his relationship of three months comes to a humiliating end, he vows never to become emotionally attached again, falling into a cycle of hook-ups, booze and an unrelenting gym routine.

The rest of Sean's life isn't panning out how he hoped either. His job as an online troll moderator is testing his mental health, his best friend and former girlfriend still resents him for coming out, and even his own mother seems to blame him for a tragedy that tore their family apart.

But it is his surprising connection with an eighty-seven-year-old nursing home resident that pushes his identity crisis to the brink.

Then Sean meets naïve but kind nurse William, and an unlikely friendship blossoms. William is shy and inexperienced when it comes to the gay dating scene, and Sean offers to show him the way - but it turns out William has a few unexpected life lessons to offer in return . . . and when it comes to forgiveness and self-love, Sean has a lot to learn.

The Bookbinder of Jericho
by Pip Williams

In 1914, when the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, it is the women who must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who work in the bindery at Oxford University Press in Jericho. Peggy is intelligent, ambitious and dreams of going to Oxford University, but for most of her life she has been told her job is to bind the books, not read them. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has. She is extraordinary but vulnerable. Peggy needs to watch over her.

When refugees arrive from the devastated cities of Belgium, it sends ripples through the community and through the sisters' lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future where she can use her intellect and not just her hands, but as war and illness reshape her world, it is love, and the responsibility that comes with it, that threaten to hold her back.

Apartment 303
by Kelli Hawkins

Rory observes the world from the safety of her third-floor apartment. But she's being watched too and will soon learn that no lock will protect her. The compelling, unsettling new psychological suspense novel from the bestselling author of Other People's Houses.

Even a locked door can't keep you safe Twenty-six-year-old Rory rarely leaves her apartment, though her little dog Buster keeps her company.

Days are spent working for her aunt's PI business, and watching and imagining histories for the homeless men, the Dossers, across the road.

At night she walks Buster on the roof, gazes at the stars and wonders. The night before New Year's Eve, one of the Dossers is murdered, an incident which brings the world - police, new neighbours, her dark past and new possibilities - crashing through Rory's front door.

She thought she was keeping her fears at bay. But has her sanctuary turned into her prison? Or is it safer for everyone if Rory stays locked away?

Paris: The Memoir
by Paris Hilton

Paris rose to prominence as an heiress to the Hilton Hotels empire, but cultivated her fame and fortune as the It Girl of the aughts, a time marked by the burgeoning twenty-four-hour entertainment news cycle and the advent of the celebrity blog.

Separating the creation from the creator, the brand from the ambassador, Paris: The Memoir strips away all we thought we knew about a celebrity icon, taking us back to a privileged childhood lived through the lens of undiagnosed ADHD and teenage rebellion that triggered a panicked--and perilous--decision by her parents.

Surviving almost two years of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse at a series of ‘emotional growth boarding schools’ and in the midst of a hell we now call the "troubled teen industry," Paris created a beautiful inner world where the ugliness couldn't touch her. She came out, resolving to trust no one but herself as she transformed that fantasy world into a multibillion-dollar reality.

Recounting her perilous journey through pre-#MeToo sexual politics with grace, dignity, and just the right amount of sass, Paris: The Memoir tracks the evolution of celebrity culture through the story of the figure at its leading edge, full of defining moments and marquee names.

Good Mourning by
Sally Douglas & Imogen Carn

Sally Douglas and Imogen Carn met after the sudden deaths of their mothers only months apart.

Launching a podcast soon after, their no-holds-barred, relatable approach to talking about grief immediately sparked an engaged and growing community.

In Good Mourning, Sal and Im talk candidly about what grief's really like, from the exhaustion to anxiety, ugly cries to 'grief face', loneliness to brain fog.

Joined by a chorus of others who share their words and insights on grief in all its forms, along with expert advice from clinical psychologist Tamara Cavenett, Sal and Im help readers begin to move through grief, whether you're one month in or ten years down the track (because there's no time frame to healing).

Good Mourning reminds us that even in the midst of unimaginable grief, there can also be light.

And while there is no magic wand to simply 'get over' your loss, there are ways to heal around it, learn to accept it as a new part of yourself and keep your loved one's memory alive.