Find a narrative voice you love and you’ll follow them almost anywhere – think Jo March, the headstrong second-eldest sister from Little Women, or social misfit Eleanor from Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.
A main character with big energy is the force that drives you through a story and keeps you invested in their ending, happy or otherwise.
All four paperbacks chosen this month by our reader panel have memorable leads, from a fiftysomething Trinidadian to an heir hunter with a big heart. We hope you love them as much as our VIP reviewers did!
‘I’ll be putting all these on my holiday reading list!’ Editor-in-Chief Jane Bruton
Buy your books from Bookshop.org (via your local bookshop) with a 10% discount using code LOVEBOOKSHOPS.
Buy A Case Of Life And Limb by Sally Smith with a copy of Good Housekeeping in selected Tesco stores and save £2
Good Books June 26 Collection Winner
Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson (Michael Joseph)
Our reviewers raved about this unusual crime novel, praising the humour, fast pace and lovable central character, Jet, who has seven days to solve her own ‘murder’ before complications from a violent attack kill her. ‘Really humorous and the countdown added intensity,’ said one VIP.
Good Books June 26 Collection Reader Favourite
A Case Of Life And Limb by Sally Smith (Raven Books)
Victorian London is the setting for this charming murder mystery featuring Gabriel Ward KC, a lawyer and reluctant sleuth on the hunt for a grisly criminal targeting residents of the Inner Temple.
‘I found this book hard to put down and will certainly recommend it to my book club,’ said a panel member.
By Your Side by Ruth Jones (Penguin)
The panel loved this heartwarming story about Linda, who runs the Unclaimed Heirs department at the local council and is tracking down the family of Levi Norman, who lived a solitary life on the tiny island of Storrich.
‘I found myself laughing in one chapter, then emotional in the next,’ said one reader.
Love Forms by Claire Adam (Faber & Faber)
A woman made to give up the baby she had at 16 is contacted 40 years later by someone claiming to be her daughter in this literary novel, which the panel found thought-provoking.
‘I like how Dawn is measured about the circumstances of her situation and the impact of it on her life,’ said a reader.
To buy the books...
Look out for the Good Books logo in all good bookshops. All the books are available from bookshop.org (via your local bookshop) with a 10% discount using the code LOVEBOOKSHOPS.
Join our VIP panel
VIP Members can sign up at ghmembers.co.uk to receive free books to review – and help us choose the next Collection of books!
