Hodder Proof Party

HOPE STREET by Mike Gayle

The greatest adventure is coming back home.

Lila Metcalfe is a trainee journalist in Derby and she's very used to being given the stories that no one else wants. So, when her editor tells her that the city's Cossington Park development is being held up by a solitary resident on Hope Street who is refusing to leave, she knows she is going to be the one sent to find out more. And that's how she meets Connor.

Twenty-something Connor is the sole resident of Hope Street and he is not at all what Lila is expecting. And he has a very clear reason not to move: he is waiting for his mum to come home.

The uplifting and heartfelt new novel from the author of A Song of Me and You.

THE SHOW WOMAN by Emma Cowing

THE SHOW MUST GO ON ... 1910. With the disappearance of her mother and the sudden death of her father, Lena instantly loses any security she has within the circus she has known all her life.

She is advised to sell the carousel her father cared for like a child and look for a husband, or a job in a factory. Until flame-haired Violet, known to all in the fairgrounds as 'the greatest trapeze artist that ever lived', suggests they go it alone with their own, all-female act. With her outspoken ways and her refusal to marry, Violet is as much an outcast as Lena.

What do they have to lose? Recruiting new performers including bareback horse-rider Rosie, on the run from her abusive father, and Carmen whose rainbow ribbons hide the darkness in her past, the four women form an unbreakable bond. Thrust into a harsh and dangerous world that treats them with suspicion, disdain and even violence, they must forge their own path in search of freedom, security, and love. Deeply rooted in the Edwardian era, THE SHOW WOMAN is brilliantly realised and expertly interlaces strong female characters, deeply-woven family secrets and heartfelt love stories.

Emma Cowing is an award-winning journalist and writer. She has written for a wide number of publications including The Sunday Times, The Mail on Sunday, The Guardian Weekend Magazine, The Spectator and The Scotsman.
Emma is a former Feature Writer of the Year at the Sottish Press Awards, and two-time Interviewer of the Year.
Emma was shortlisted for the 2023 Cheshire Novel Prize, and longlisted for the 2023 Bath Novel Award and Blur Pencil First Novel Award. The Show Woman is her first novel.

SO THRILLED FOR YOU by Holly Bourne

An intense heatwave. A high-stakes baby shower. Will it all end in tears?
The Little Women: Nicki, Lauren, Charlotte and Steffi. Friends since university, they are now in their thirties and life is pulling them in different directions. Until a baby shower invite arrives...
Reunited on a sweltering hot summer’s day, tensions rise quickly as the friendship group reveal whatis pulling them all apart...

STEFFI: powerhouse literary agent who is happily child-free but feeling judged by her friends.
CHARLOTTE: desperate to conceive yet intent on organising the 'perfect' baby shower for her friend
LAUREN: who is finding motherhood far, far worse than she imagined
NICKI: who never wanted a baby shower and is holding onto secrets from the past.

Can their friendship survive the high-pressure event and the subsequent police investigation, as a fire starts?

Holly Bourne is a bestselling and critically acclaimed author of YA and adult novels including the Spinster Club series and How Do You Like Me Now? Inspired by her work with young people, and her own experiences of everyday sexism, Holly is a passionate mental health advocate and proud femisist.

Starting her writing career as a news journalist, Holly has also been an editor, relationship advisor and 'agony aunt' for a youth charity.

Holly's experiences of early motherhood and female friendship have inspired So Thrilled For You.