Author: Penelope Todd Publisher: Cloud Ink Press

Nell is born to a new century, her early life forged in the freedoms of the NZ high country. Her own freedom is tested: by family expectation, by husband Herb's pride, by the rigours of family life on a Maniototo sheep station.

1 May 2024

Author: M.H. Green Publisher: M.H.Green

Fresh from her success in her first murder trial at the Old Bailey, Penelope Lloyd-Hargreaves is persuaded to represent a senior Queen's Council who is in grave danger of being disbarred. Having accepted the case, she must call upon every ounce of expertise to achieve a satisfactory result. But is it enough? Will she prevail? And what of the request to take on a pupil? How will this fit in with her ambition to take silk?

April 2024

Author: Louise Wallace Publisher: Te Herenga Waka University Press

Thea lives under a mountain - one that's ready to blow. A vet at a mid-sized rural practice has been called back during maternity leave and is coping - just - with the juggle of meetings, mealtimes, farm visits, her boss's search for legal loopholes and the constant care of her much-loved children, Eli and Lucy. But something is shifting in Thea - something is burning. Or is it that she is becoming aware, for the first time, of the bright, hot core at her centre? Then comes an urgent call. Ingeniously layered, Ash is a story about reckoning with one's rage and finding marvels in the midst of chaos.

11 April 2024

Author: Kyle Mewburn Publisher: David Bateman Ltd

11 April 2024

Author: Karen McMillan Publisher: Quentin Wilson Publishing

Dunedin, 1890: Suddenly orphaned at the tender age of twenty, Greer Gillies is reduced to working as a humble servant at Larnach Castle, a far cry from the dreams she held before. As she struggles with the stark reality of grief, she finds her journey has only just begun as the decade proves transformative for women's progress. As she grapples with affairs of the heart, betrayal, the threat of lost love and social upheavals, Greer's resilience shines through. She becomes a symbol of courage, daring to pursue her dreams, follow her heart and find her place in a world that promises a better future. Spanning the last decade of the 19th century, this page-turning saga explores the healing power of friendship while celebrating the pivotal role women played in one of New Zealand's most turbulent eras.

27 March 2024

Author: Saraid de Silva Publisher: Moa Press

Moving between cities and generations, Amma follows three women on very different paths, against a backdrop of shifting cultures. As circumstance and misunderstanding force them apart, it will take the most profound love to knit them back together before it's too late.

27 March 2024

Author: Danielle Hawkins Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Laura and Doug were together for ages. Their breakup was just one of those things - she wanted children, he didn't, no hard feelings - at least not until, with their relationship barely cold in its grave, he got his new girlfriend pregnant.

Now, seven years later, a polite social call to his parents lands Laura back in the family, helping Doug and his playboy younger brother to cope with a whole raft of crises. And what better time to re-evaluate your major life decisions than when you're wrangling a farm, a bookshop, two small children, your ex's wife in labour and his two sick parents?

26 March 2024

Author: Marie Connolly Publisher: Quentin Wilson Publishing

Criminal psychologist Nellie Prayle loves solving murders. The more complicated, the better. But when a professor of astronomy is found dead at Tekapo’s Mt John Observatory during its internationally-attended 50th anniversary conference celebrations and Detective Jack Simmons calls on Nellie to help with the police investigation, she soon realises that this is not your typical murder – and nor are these your usual suspects.

27 March 2024

Author: Gavin Strawhan Publisher: Allen & Unwin NZ

After surviving a brutal attack, Auckland cop DS Honey Chalmers has returned to her hometown to care for her mother. The remote coastal settlement of Waitut? holds complicated memories for Honey, not least the tragic suicide of her younger sister, Scarlett. Honey is hardest on herself. She let herself get too close to a gang informant. She got sloppy. The Reapers are a 501 gang of Aussie imports, ruthless and organised, and she's pretty sure the informant, mother-of-three Kloe Kovich, paid the price. But when a couple of gang enforcers turn up in Waitut?, Honey realises they are hoping she will lead them to Kloe. But if Kloe is still alive, can Honey save her this time around?

19 March 2024

Author: Romesh Dissanayake Publisher: Te Herenga Waka Press

In his small noodle shop in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, a young chef obsessively juliennes carrots. Nothing is going according to plan: the bills are piling up, his mother is dead, and there are strangers in his kitchen. The ancestors are watching closely. Told through a series of brilliant interludes and jump cuts, When I open the shop is sometimes blackly funny, sometimes angry and sometimes lyrical, and sometimes as a car soars off the road on a horror road trip to the Wairarapa it takes flight into surrealism. A glimpse into immigrant life in Aotearoa, this is a highly entertaining, surprising and poignant debut novel about grief, struggle and community.

15 March 2024

Author: Olivia Hayfield Publisher: Treehouse Books

Britain is sunk in gloom, its government blundering between crisis and scandal. The country desperately needs a new hero. Enter Arthur 'Ace' Penhalagon, smashing his way to Wimbledon victory and into women's hearts. Ace has two missions: to be the first man to win the Golden Slam - the Holy Grail of tennis - and to use his fame as a force for good. Eliza Rose, head of media giant Rose Corporation, shares Ace's dreams for Britain. For him it's love at first sight, but ever cautious, she prioritises her career. When Eliza becomes the target of death threats from Ace's fans, he spirits her away to the safety of his native Cornwall. But there, he too must confront his demons.

15 March 2024

Author: Lauren Keenan Publisher: Penguin Books NZ

A gripping historical novel set amid the New Zealand Wars in 1860. As English settlers wage war upon local iwi in colonial Taranaki, two women confront their pasts to survive the present. Frances is an unmarried Londoner newly landed in New Zealand, 1860, at the dawn of the First Taranaki War. When Frances comes face-to-face with Henry White, the man who jilted her a decade earlier. Henry is married now to the proud and hardy Mataria, who is shunned by her whanau due to this controversial marriage. As conflict between settlers and iwi rises, both women must find the courage to fight for what is right, even if it costs them everything they know.

5 March 2024

Author: Paul Cleave. Publisher: Penguin NZ

He's a nice guy out to catch a copycat killer. The one copying himself. Joe is in control of everything in his simple life, including both his day job at the police department and his 'night work'. He is not bothered by the reports of The Christchurch Carver, who - they say - murdered seven women. Joe knows the carver has killed only six. He knows that for a fact. And Joe is going to find that copycat killer, punish him for the one murder and then frame him for the rest.

5 March 2024

Author: Graham Lindsay. Publisher: Lasavia Publishing Ltd

Graham Lindsay brings us the story of Max Gunn, a thoughtful and idealistic youth, who leaves New Zealand in 1940 to fight fascism in Europe. His experiences there over the next five years will shadow him for the rest of his life. Lindsay's careful attention detail brings the past to life. We feel like we can taste the broth 'that a turnip has swum through, ' hear the songs of the soldiers, and feel the prick of the robinia's thorn.

1 March 2024

Author: Erin Palmisano. Publisher: Moa Press.

On a sun-kissed Greek island, a charming taverna and guest house lies empty. Tucked amongst lemon trees and wildflowers, the taverna was Cressida's dream - a place to host and delight people with her irresistible Greek food - until her husband died and she could barely keep going.

27 February 2024

Author: SL Beaumont. Publisher: Paperback Writer Publishing

She will risk everything to expose the truth. 1943 - Bletchley Park, England Mae Webster, immersed in the clandestine world of codebreaking at Bletchley Park, is recruited to help unveil a spy who's on the brink of exposing Britain's most guarded secret: the cracking of the Enigma code. As war rages around her, Mae's life takes an unexpected turn when she falls in love with the enigmatic New Zealand war photographer Jack Knight. Their relationship develops at pace, but tragedy strikes when one of Jack's photographs risks unmasking an elusive double agent.

15 February 2024

Author: Olive Nuttall. Publisher: Te Herenga Waka University Press

Rosemary, a trans girl, has many conflicting qualities. She's super smart but flawed, polyamorous but timid, promiscuous but inexperienced. She's surprising, and surprised by herself. A call that Rosemary's grandmother is dying puts her on the bus from Te Whanganui-a-Tara back to Kirikiriroa.

8 February 2024

Author: Tangaroa Paul Illustrator: Rebecca Gibbs Publisher: Oratia Books

Written in te reo Maori and translated by the author, Rere Atu Taku Poi! is a beautifully illustrated story about gender fluidity in a school setting. Rangi loves doing haka but performing poi is his favourite - even though his classmates say it's just for girls. When the lead poi performer falls sick before a school performance, Rangi has to take her place. How will the other students and audience react - 'Surely a boy can't lead the poi?'

Author: Patricia Grace. Publisher: Penguin New Zealand

Mythology and contemporary Māori life are woven together seamlessly in this spectacular collection by Aotearoa’s foremost short story writer.

30 January 2024

Author: Susanne Strasser Publisher: Gecko Press

Everyone's on the sofa to share a book: zebra, cat, child, lion. "Wait!" says Zebra, "Stork isn't here yet!" Then the cat needs a cushion, the hamster's missing, someone's sitting on the lion's tail, the fish wants to be in the middle... NOW they'll be able to start-won't they?