Steve Roud was Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and served as Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society for over fifteen years. He has been researching British folklore for over thirty years and is the joint author of the Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore, plus other books on traditional drama and folk song, and the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, which won the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award in 2004. His publications include London Lore (2008) and The Lore of the Playground (2010). He also compiles the Folk Song Index and the Broadside Index, two internationally acclaimed computer databases of traditional folk and popular song. He lives in Sussex.

Steve Roud

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Jessica M. Goldstein

Ash is a failed actress who is done trying to ‘make’ something of her life. Until a golden opportunity drops in her lap: a job at Retro, an agency who organise trips into the past for the ultra-wealthy. 
 
Energised by her new role, Ash throws herself into leading bachelorette parties in the Old West, birthday parties at Woodstock and a situationship with a hard-drinking detective from 1937. But as time goes on, it becomes clear that Retro’s shadowy founder Ro has terrifying designs for the company’s future – and for the part Ash herself can play in it.

Retro

Kate Eberle

She thought she was in a romance. Fate threw her into a thriller. Will happily-ever-after still be on the cards when fiction and reality blur for Roxie? 
When Roxie makes a tongue-in-cheek wish to live out the plot of her favourite author’s next novel, she has romance in mind — namely, the sweet, safe, swoon-worthy storylines Anna Matthews is known for. It should be a dream come true when her wish is granted by a mysterious busker. Except for one little hiccup: that dashing stranger tries to take her breath away. Literally. With a knife. The thing is, Roxie may be the new Anna Matthews protagonist — but this time, Anna is writing a crime thriller.Thrown into a perilous genre she’s never read, Roxie is desperate for help. So, when her escape from a potential murderer takes her straight into the path of Grant Hoffman — an anxious English professor with a convenient love of crime novels — she decides a little light kidnapping is a small price to pay for survival.Together, Roxie and Grant team up to navigate a madcap story where the lines between fiction and reality blur and find out if they have what it takes to make it to The End — or maybe even Happily Ever After.

If Books Could Kill

Kimberly Lynn Hanson

She is the Skratti – the monster in the woods. 
 
She does not know where she came from, or why she lurks in these shadows. 
 
She knows only that she hungers. For flesh, for blood – for the human hearts the nearby villagers offer up to her. 
 
But when their latest sacrifice, a petty thief named Rorik, enters the Skratti’s lair, a long-forgotten memory is sparked of a sister she once had. 
 
As the Skratti and Rorik piece together her buried past, a dangerous close grows. Soon she will be forced to choose: devour his heart, or give him her own?

I Am The Devouring Dark

Steve Jones

Ray might be about to die. But he&rsquo;s sure as hell not going quietly &hellip; 
 
Former policeman Ray &lsquo;Sugar&rsquo; Leonard is no stranger to bad breaks. But even Walter White never had to open up and share his feelings with a bunch of misfits like Ray&rsquo;s chemotherapy group: a giant God-bothering Welsh bouncer, a sharp-suited wannabe Wolf of Wall Street, and a misanthropic, potty-mouthed little old lady. Compared to that lot, getting mugged on his way home from the clinic was almost a relief. 
 
But Ray is not your average victim. And when his training kicks in and his would-be attacker winds up dead, he wonders, who else might be equally deserving of such summary justice? After all, he&rsquo;s got cancer, what&rsquo;s he got to lose? 
 
Then Ray lets slip his new philosophy to the group and it soon becomes clear that he&rsquo;s not the only one with murder in mind &hellip;

Terminally Kill

Simone St. James

1960s: 
 
Three siblings are all haunted in three very different ways. Violet wakes to a strange and cold woman looming over her bed, Dodie wakes in a constant state of drowning and Vale wakes to beaming light and probing figures. But the one thing that haunts them the most is the disappearance of their little brother, Ben, who went missing during a game of hide and seek. 
 
1980s: 
 
Violet is notified that Ben's spirit is seen wondering their haunted childhood home calling for them to return and the three siblings do just that. But secrets become un-earthed, their past traumas seem more connected that they thought and all siblings are faced with a very angry spirit who wants revenge.

A Box Full of Darkness

Matt Dinniman

Carl and Donut have survived so far, but this fourth level is unlike anything they could imagine. The Iron Tangle: an impossibly complicated subway system tied together into a knot of trains of all kinds. The top ten list is populated, and Carl and Donut have made it. But that popularity comes with a price. They each now have a bounty on their head. They have to work with other crawlers to solve the puzzle of the floor, but how can they do that when they don’t know who to trust? The secret to unraveling it all may be hidden in the pages of a seemingly-useless book. Welcome, Crawlers. Welcome to the fourth floor of the dungeon

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They’ve already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever feline royalty are an almost unstoppable team. Their ratings are off the chart. The watchers can’t get enough. But the dungeon gets more dangerous each day, and now there’s a whole new problem to deal with. Quests. They call it the Over City. A sprawling, once-thriving metropolis devastated by a mysterious calamity. But these streets are far from abandoned. An undead circus trawls the ruins. Murdered women rain from the sky. An ancient spell is finally ready to reveal its dark purpose. Can Carl and Donut solve the mystery in time? And can Carl finally find some pants?

Carl's Doomsday Scenario

Emma Straub

Annie is: 
<ul><li>On a cruise with her one-time favourite boyband and a thousand female super-fans</li><li>Still reeling from her divorce</li><li>Being replaced at work by her intern</li></ul> 
Keith is: 
<ul><li>Fifty years old and in a band that performs dance routines with hip thrusts</li><li>Suffering from sea sickness</li><li>Certain his wife doesn’t love him anymore</li></ul> 
When a meet-and-greet throws them together, Annie develops a crush on Keith, and Keith starts to wonder if life might have a few surprises in store for him. 
 
But are Keith and Annie just living a fantasy? And what happens when they get back to shore?

American Fantasy

As chaos and mass panic spread outside the dungeon in the wake of Faction Wars, Carl and Donut find themselves on the tenth floor, where they’re forced to compete in a surprisingly normal set of tasks. Races. Get from point A to point B, and don’t come in last. It all seems a a little too simple. 
 
Ignore those whispers about what’s happening on the mysterious eleventh floor, something the system AI calls A Parade of Horribles. Nobody, not even the showrunners, knows what that means. Just that the AI has ominously dubbed it “a coming-out party for the ages.” 
 
So Carl is planning a party of his own. 
But if it goes wrong, it’s not just the end of Carl and Donut. No. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been.

A Parade of Horribles

Gillian McAllister

A road trip across America with her teenage daughter was meant to be much-needed bonding time for Simone before Lucy leaves home for university. 
 
But on the first night of their stay, in a cabin deep in the Texan desert, Simone wakes to find Lucy missing and a mobile phone in her place. The phone rings and the voice on the other end issues instructions: Don’t tell the police. Come to this location. Be prepared to do a deal… 
 
There is nothing Simone wouldn’t do to save her daughter. Hide the truth. Commit a terrible crime. Become a wanted woman. 
 
But there’s one thing Simone hasn’t considered. 
 
What if this is just what the kidnappers want?

Caller Unknown

New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure.You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that’s talent. 
 
Surviving in a multilevel dungeon that also happens to be the set of the galaxy’s most watched game show has taught Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, that there’s only one thing they can count on apart from each other: they never know what’s coming next. And this floor is no exception. 
 
A floating fortress occupied by warrior gnomes. A castle made of sand. A derelict submarine guarded by malfunctioning machines. A haunted crypt surrounded by lethal traps. 
 
It was supposed to be easy. One bubble. Four castles. Fifteen days. Capture each one, and the stairwell is unlocked. Here's the thing. It's never easy. Going it alone is not an option this time, so Carl and his team must rely on the help of the low-level, I-can't-believe-these-idiots-are-still-alive crawlers trapped in the bubble with them. But can they be trusted? 
 
Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the fifth floor of the dungeon.

The Gate of the Feral Gods

Chaos reigns on the eighth floor. 
 
Coast Guard vet Carl and Princess Donut have survived longer—and climbed higher—than anyone expected in the galaxy’s favorite reality show, but now the game is wide open. The task: capture six monsters and turn them into battle cards. The stronger the creature, the better the hand.But there’s always a catch. To win, Carl and Donut must claim the deadliest monster of all: Shi Maria, the Bedlam Bride—once wed to a now-missing god, her very attack can shatter the mind.Capturing a monster is one thing. Taming it? That’s another story entirely.

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic, intergalactic game show. That’s what. 
 
Join Coast Guard veteran Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game-like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. 
 
Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Jane Fallon

Georgia and Lydia are so close they're practically sisters. 
 
So when Lydia starts an online business that struggles, Georgia wants to help her - but she also understands Lydia's not the kind to accept a handout. 
 
Setting up a fake Twitter account, Georgia hopes to give her friend some anonymous moral support by posing as a potential customer. 
 
But then Lydia starts confiding in her new internet buddy and Georgia discovers she doesn't know her quite as well as she thought. 
 
Especially when Lydia reveals a secret that could tear Georgia's marriage apart . . .

Worst Idea Ever

What’s a little white lie between best friends?

Rainbow Rowell

Cherry and Tom had built a quiet, contented life together in Omaha, until Tom’s semi-autobiographical webcomic went viral and turned their marriage into public property. 
 
Now the world knows Baby, the character based on Cherry, better than Cherry knows herself – and Tom and Cherry have been separated for months. 
 
That’s when Russ Sutton shows up. Floppy-haired, blue-eyed Russ Sutton, who Cherry had a crush on in college, and who now seems to have a crush on her. 
 
All that’s left is for Cherry to rewrite her own story. Because if she isn’t Baby, and she isn’t Tom’s wife, then who can she be?

Cherry Baby

Fran Littlewood

Alex, Eva and Nancy. Three grown-up sisters; each wonderful and messy in their own individual ways. And loved equally by their parents, Vivienne and Patrick. 
 
Or so they thought . . . Until on their annual family holiday, Patrick accidentally lets slip that he has a favourite daughter - causing other long-buried secrets to come to light. 
 
Set over a single week, but examining the highs and lows that define a family over the decades, The Favourite is a story about rivalries and long-held resentments, about loss and grief and blame – and, above all, about love.

The Favourite

Shirtaloon

It's a tale as old as time: 9-5 worker Jason wakes up in a mysterious world of magic and monsters. Oh wait. 
 
It’s not easy making the career jump from office-supplies-store middle manager to heroic interdimensional adventurer. At least, Jason tries to be heroic, but it's hard to be good when all your powers are evil. 
 
He’ll face off against cannibals, cultists, wizards, monsters...and that’s just on the first day. He’s going to need courage, he’s going to need wit, and he’s going to need some magic powers of his own. But first, he’s going to need a pair of pants.

He Who Fights With Monsters: Outworlder

Jenny Tinghui Zhang

Lonely college student Minnie feels invisible until she stumbles upon HOURglass: America’s new K-pop inspired boyband obsession. Soon she is memorising the lyrics to every song and staying up late to watch their livestreams, hoping that her favourite member, bad-boy Halo, will see her in the comments.On the other side of the screen, Halo is also becoming addicted to the adoration from his fans, using their love to paper over the cracks of the tragic past he is determined to keep hidden.But when Minnie is drawn to a shadowy fan community who believe they need to protect the band members from a dark conspiracy, the line between fandom and obsession begins to blur...

Superfan

Mark Edwards

It’s Noel and Dani’s first Christmas in their new home and they want everything to be perfect - lavish presents, a beautiful tree and outdoor decorations to join in with the festivities in this welcoming community.But they quickly wonder if this street is as idyllic as it appears. First, there are the unwelcome presents left anonymously on their doorstep. Then they are sure someone is watching them. And why are the neighbours all obsessed with a notorious killer who is housed at the nearby women’s prison?After tragedy strikes at a Christmas party, Noel and Dani try to find out who is targeting them – but, in this case, it might be safer not to know . . .

The Christmas Magpie

Robin Burcell

Husband-and-wife team Sam and Remi Fargo face a new exciting adventure, continuing the bestselling series from UK No. 1 Bestseller Clive Cussler, the Grand Master of Adventure. 
 
The latest action-packed thriller featuring treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo. 
 
Praise for Clive Cussler: 
 
 'The Adventure King' Sunday Express 
 
 'Just about the best in the business' New York Post 
 
 'Cussler is hard to beat' Daily Mail

Clive Cussler's The Serpent's Eye

All colonist Oliver Lewis ever wanted to do is run the family ranch and keep his family’s aging fleet of intelligent agriculture bots ticking. But when his planet's transfer gate finally opens and restores instant travel and full communication between Earth and his planet, New Sonora, there’s a complication. The colossal Apex Corporation is hired to commence an “eviction action.” and they charge bored Earthers for the opportunity to design their own war machines, remotely pilot them and make it a game. Oliver and his friends soon find themselves fighting for their lives against these machines. But with the help of an old book from his grandfather, Oliver is determined to defend the only home he’s ever known.

Operation Bounce House

Jodie Chapman

Frank and Chrissy meet a couple of days into 1970. Frank O’Hara, with his Elvis T-shirt and slicked-back hair, has escaped England for adventure out west. As soon as someone tells him about a house in the desert two hours east of LA where the walls are curved and the glass shimmers, a house where Elvis and Priscilla Presley honeymooned only a few years before, Frank tells himself: I have to see this place. 
 
When Chrissy, all blonde hair and oversized sunglasses, picks him up hitchhiking on the side of the road, it’s love at first sight. Weeks later they elope, setting out to build Mirage, an exact replica of Elvis and Priscilla’s mid-century honeymoon fantasy in a muddy English field. For the next forty years, Mirage will be home to three generations of the O’Hara family. But when your life is a sunny Californian dream raised in Britain, you start to wonder: where exactly do I belong?

California Gold

Annie Summerlee

An elite vampire university in Scotland has opened it's doors to humans for the first time. But there is one pupil very different from the rest. . . Rebecca Charity. Vampire hunter. She is searching for the Book of Blood and Roses, a compendium of ways to kill vampires. 
 
But when Rebecca arrives, she finds someone unexpected. 
 
The beautiful vampire, Aliz Astra who is everything Rebecca has always hated, and wanted. 
 
When Aliz rescues her from a vampire attack, she accidentally makes Rebecca her familiar. And they must work together to break the curse. Growing closer by the day. 
 
But what happens when a vampire hunter falls in love with a vampire?

The Book of Blood and Roses

Laura Dickerman

This isn't the office romance you expected... Perfect for fans of You've Got Mail, Attachments and Good Material 
'Hilarious, heartbreaking, satirical, cutting and FUN' Laura Jane Williams 
'For anyone who loves Curtis Sittenfeld, Nora Ephron, Alison Espach' Joanna Rackoff 
'Super smart and assured . . . Fans of Tom Lake and The Flatshare will love it' Sarra Manning 
'Rollicking and entertaining' People Magazine 
'Captures all the thrills and aches of setting out in the world' Morgan Dick 
 
 1982Jane Kinloch arrives at the legendary townhouse offices of the East River Review as a wide-eyed intern with big dreams. When she strikes up a friendship with glamorous fellow intern Rose, the two soon become inseparable. But Rose’s attraction to their married boss, literary titan Edward David Adams, threatens to drive a wedge between them. 
2022Once upon a time in publishing, editors had their own offices. But now, to her great chagrin, Rebecca Blume of Avenue Publishing must share custody of a ‘hot desk’ with Ben Heath, editor at rival imprint Hawk Mills. What starts as a battle of passive-aggressive Post-it notes about an unwatered cactus notes escalates after the death of renowned writer Edward David Adams. He has left behind an unpublished manuscript, and Ben and Rebecca are soon vying for the career-making opportunity to publish it. 
But when Rebecca discovers that the manuscript contains a decades-old secret about her mother, Jane, she is determined to stop it from seeing the light of day. 
Can she persuade her infuriating (and annoyingly handsome) rival deskmate to let it go? 
A funny, sexy, unexpectedly moving novel that weaves a contemporary workplace romance with a gripping historical narrative set in the 1980s New York publishing industry.

Hot Desk

Giovanna Fletcher

When you feel like life's beating you down, it's time to fight back. 
 
Carly needs a break. Between her three kids, husband, mother-in-law and working on hotel reception she is being pulled in multiple directions. The reliable 'yes' person for everyone, Carly's always running at 200mph. 
 
It's time to say no. Carly is ready to take back some control and start remembering the things she used to love. As she begins to step back from doing everything for everyone else, she's excited to discover new challenges for herself. But what happens when this newfound sense of freedom has repercussions she never saw coming? 
 
As Carly moves through her journey of discovering the power of no, she also realises the importance of saying yes. 
 
 
From the Sunday Times bestseller comes a new uplifting and emotional story full of love, laughter and romance.

Untitled Giovanna Fletcher

Philippa Rice

Evnie Treedle makes magical things and for the last few years has been working at the magical knickknack shop, The Magpie Nest.But everything changes when Evnie’s crafting abilities catch theattention of the nearby Reignclowd Palace. She is soon whisked away to become the Palace’s spellsmith and is put to work making and mending magical objects.But disaster strikes when a dragon threatens the Kingdom’s princess and it is up to Evnie to put her crafting talents to the test to save the girl, and the Kingdom, from this mysterious beast.

Reignclowd Palace

Austin Taylor

When Zoe and Jack meet in a chemistry classroom in Harvard, they couldn’t be more different: she’s the daughter of a renowned MIT professor, he’s escaping an upbringing steeped in poverty – but they are immediately drawn to one another. 
 
Neither knows it yet, but in two years’ time, they will have dropped out of college and become business partners in a billion-dollar company that promises longer life. But as they become wrapped up in a maelstrom of insatiable ambition, greed and ultimately deceit, their love for each other will be tested to its very limit…

Notes on Infinity

Søren Sveistrup

Count to one, count to two… 
A strange voice from inside the woods, repeating a child’s counting rhyme. 
Count to four, count to five… 
A body discovered in the water. 
You’re trying to go home. Will you make it alive? 
Thirty years later, a woman is haunted by a string of anonymous text messages, repeating that same counting rhyme. Counting down. 
Found you. 
Detectives Naia Thulin and Mark Hess are charged with finding the missing woman. But when they uncover links to a decades-old cold case, their investigation takes a terrifying turn. 
A twisted killer is on the loose. Can they catch them, before they strike again?

Hide And Seek

K. L. Slater

Emily is ready to leave the lies behind. With a beautiful new home and money in the bank, her partner Oliver promises their life as con artists is over. Orchard Lane seems perfect — friendly neighbours, quiet dinners, a fresh start.But something isn’t right. Unsettling messages arrive. Emily feels watched. Oliver starts acting strangely.As paranoia grows and secrets resurface, murder strikes the street. And Emily realises there’s only one thing she knows for certain about her husband:He’s a very good liar.

We Tell Lies

J. M. Gutsch

Maxim Leo

Meet Frankie the cat. He’s a stray who belongs to no one, and that’s just how he likes it. 
 
Until one day, everything changes. He crosses paths with Richard. 
 
Richard isn’t doing so well. Grieving the loss of his wife, he’s turned his back on hope and is ready to end it all. But his plans are halted when Frankie the cat is injured on his doorstep. 
 
Frankie needs help. But then, so does Richard. What Richard doesn’t know is that Frankie is no ordinary cat. 
 
It’s an unlikely partnership. But it might be exactly what they both need . . .

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