In A Day in the Country (third of six in Ashers Anthology), a letter sent to a family in another town comes about because of a meeting between musicians. One of which is a craftsman, who tells his apprentice that someone he met also had relatives with the same name as the apprentice. Years later, a phone call from the family, who received the letter, leads to a visit by the now-married apprentice to the caller. What follows isin some respectsa partial comedy and drama involving a potential religious intermarriage that fails to materialise but has remarkable consequences.

“A novel for our time, a courageous and necessary book.” —Jennifer Haigh, author of Heat and Light In this stunning novel about judgment, courage, heartbreak, and change, author Silas House wrestles with the limits of belief and the infinite ways to love. In the aftermath of a flood that washes away much of a small Tennessee town, evangelical preacher Asher Sharp offers shelter to two gay men. In doing so, he starts to see his life anew—and risks losing everything: his wife, locked into her religious prejudices; his congregation, which shuns Asher after he delivers a passionate sermon in defense of tolerance; and his young son, Justin, caught in the middle of what turns into a bitter custody battle. With no way out but ahead, Asher takes Justin and flees to Key West, where he hopes to find his brother, Luke, whom he’d turned against years ago after Luke came out. And it is there, at the southernmost point of the country, that Asher and Justin discover a new way of thinking about the world, and a new way of understanding love. Southernmost is a tender and affecting book, a meditation on love and its consequences.

Four exceptional novels together in one box set! The Book Club by Mary Alice Monroe For five women, their monthly meeting is a place of sanctuary and community. These women from different walks of life are each embracing the challenge of change in their own circumstances. And as they share their hopes and fears and triumphs, they will hold fast to the true magic of the book club—friendship. The Kommandant’s Girl by Pam Jenoff In Poland at the outbreak of the Second World War, Emma Bau takes on a new identity and a job as assistant to a high-ranking Nazi official. Urged by the resistance to use her position to access details of the occupation, Emma must compromise her safety—and her marriage vows—in order to help the cause. As the atrocities of war intensify, Emma must make choices that will risk not only her double life, but also the lives of those she loves. Come Away with Me by Karma Brown Tegan Lawson is consumed by grief and anger after a devastating accident that changes her life in ways she could never have imagined. But then her adoring husband, Gabe, reminds her of their Jar of Spontaneity, a collection of their dream destinations and experiences, and so begins an adventure of a lifetime. Together they explore the world and search for forgiveness, possibly to find hope. The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick Sixty-nine-year-old Arthur Pepper lives a simple, orderly life. But on the one-year anniversary of his wife’s death, he discovers in her possessions a gold charm bracelet that he’d never seen before. Arthur embarks on a life-changing adventure to find the truth about his wife’s life before they met, a journey that leads him to find hope, healing and self-discovery in the most unexpected places.

Arise from the Ashes, are stories of hope from seven women from all walks of life. These women who have gone through the fire, walked in places that others dare not tread, but women who are not ashamed of their scars and willing to bare it all. They share their journey of going from trials to triumph and pain to purpose. Arise from the Ashes is filled with inspiration, wisdom and life’s lessons from women who have endured personal pain and have come through empowered, encouraged and victorious.

In the eight years since his first full-length novel Gridlinked was published by Pan Macmillan, Neal Asher has firmly established himself as one of the leading British writers of Science Fiction, and his novels are now translated in many languages. Most of his stories are set in a galactic future-scape called ‘The Polity’, and with this collection of marvellously inventive and action-packed short stories, he takes us further into the manifold diversities of that amazing universe. No one does monsters better than Neal Asher, so be prepared to revisit the lives and lifestyles of such favourites as the gabbleduck and the hooder, to savour alien poisons, the walking dead, the Sea of Death, and the putrefactor symbiont.

Ash Jenkins was the typical boy next door. Wait, who am I kidding? There was nothing typical about that boy. He was tall, ripped, and had the voice of a man twice his age. Intelligent, sexy as sin, and barely legal. Sent to live with his dad after getting in some trouble with the law, he was definitely someone I needed to stay away from. But he had his sights set on me, and he didn't try to hide it. Did it still make me a cougar if I was the prey?