June and July 2025 Books

What’s new and good to read? Dan Coombes has a look at what’s on offer from publishers in June and July and chooses Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Fall by Martin Kemp and Life Cycle of a Moth by Rowe Irvin for June.

For July, there’s Men in Love by Irvine Welsh, Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch and Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson.

Atmosphere – Taylor Jenkins Reid

I’m not sure if there’s an official moment when you start calling an author iconic, but Taylor Jenkins Reid is surely there by now. Eight bestselling novels, movies and tv series of at least half of them, nominations, awards and a general frenzy whenever something new is on the cards.

Her latest book takes us back to 1980 – when America still hadn’t quite gotten round to sending any women into space – as astrophysics professor Joan Goodwin begins training as an astronaut and discovers love, passion and her own voice even as she prepares to head into space.

TJR writes relatable humans in love very well indeed, and mixes all of the romance up with decent characters and good stories, a fact that’s won her a legion of devoted fans that grows with every book.

In the summer of 1980, astrophysics professor Joan Goodwin begins training to be an astronaut at Houston’s Johnson Space Centre alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond; mission specialists John Griffin and Lydia Danes; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer.

As the new astronauts prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined and begins to question everything she believes about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant. Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love – this time among the stars.

Images: Atmosphere front cover,  Author Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Fall – Martin Kemp

Have I included this book by writer, actor and 80s music legend Martin Kemp just to shoehorn in a bunch of rubbish Spandau Ballet jokes? No, of course not, but to cut a long story short this book could be gold.

It’s a fun, pacy thriller that makes for a great holiday read, but it’s not only when you leave on vacation that you’d enjoy this – Martin Kemp has gone through the barricades of ‘famous guy trying his luck writing a book’ and although it’s early days for him as an author, he seems to have crashed into love with writing, and he’ll have a fine writing career ahead of him, I know this much is true.

The bigger the star, the harder they fall. Johnny Klein, fallen ‘80s pop icon, thinks life is finally on the up.

He’s basking in the luxury of the French Riviera – hoping his worst days are behind him. But after a man’s death in London, Johnny is forced to confront the darkest corners of his fame. Thrust into a dangerous game of lies and betrayal, Johnny must uncover a deadly secret, before somebody else dies…

Images: The Fall front cover,  Author Martin Kemp

Life Cycle of a Moth – Rowe Irvin

There’s historical romance afoot in Danielle Giles’ debut novel, but not the stolen glances, arch conversations at dinner, dropped hankies and deeply impractical olden timey undergarments kind. This love story is all wrapped up in oppressive religion, sinister horror, the inexplicable power of nature and the possible involvement of Satan.

Mere is as much an unsettling literary horror story as it is a tale of love, and much more off-kilter and a bit disturbing than it is heartwarming. And not least because it’s set in Norfolk.

A hypnotic historical novel about fear and survival, power and position, and a love that takes hold in the darkest of places. Norfolk, 990 AD.

Deep in the Fens, isolated by a vast and treacherous mere, an order of holy sisters make their home. Under the steely guidance of Abbess Sigeburg they follow God’s path, looking to their infirmarian, Hilda, to provide what comfort and cures she can.

But when the mere takes a young servant boy, Sigeburg’s grip falters and Hilda quickly realizes this place holds secrets darker and more

unholy than she can fathom. Then proud Sister Wulfrun, a recent arrival to the convent, has a vision: a curse is upon them and change must be brought. Is she saint or serpent? To Hilda, Wulfrun is a signal bolder and brighter than any fire set – one she cannot help but follow . . .

Images: Life Cycle of a Moth  front cover,  Author Rowe Irvin

Men in Love – Irvine Welsh

Irvine Welsh has completed a vast body of work over across his career, but will quite probably forever remain most famous for writing the culturally iconic and really, really sweary Trainspotting in 1993, so you certainly can’t blame him for returning to the characters that made his name.

That’s not to say he’s wheeling out tried and tested stuff just to make a quick bit of money, though. Thirty years on his still a sharp, uncompromising and fiery writer with the power to shock, infuriate and occasionally make you feel a bit sick.

If you occasionally get a little misty eyed for the Eighties and Nineties rave scene but prefer dark humour, unflinchingly gritty sex, drugs and violence to anything approaching cosy nostalgia, this should be right up your street.

For the Trainspotting crew, a new era is about to begin – a time for hope, for love, for raving. Leaving heroin behind and separated after a drug deal gone wrong, Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie each want to feel alive. They fill their days with sex and romance and trying to get ahead; they follow the call of the dance floor, with its promise of joy and redemption.

Sick Boy starts an intense relationship with Amanda, his ‘princess’ – rich, connected, everything that he is not. When the pair set a date for their wedding, Sick Boy sees a chance for his generation to take control at last. But as the 1990s dawn, will finding love be the answer to the group’s dreams or just another doomed quest?

Images: Men in Love  front cover,  Author Irvine Welsh

Stone and Sky – Ben Aaronovitch

If you’ve already read some or all of Ben Aaronovitch’s marvellous Rivers Of London series, you probably won’t need too much convincing to pick this up. If you’re new to it, well…honestly you need to start at the beginning, which is ten books ago, not counting novellas, short stories and comic books…but you won’t regret it.

Police procedural fused with occult fantasy with a healthy dose of sardonic British humour and people calling each other ‘guv’ like it’s going out of fashion, based in the little-known supernatural crime-solving police divisions of London – and further afield as the series progresses.

This is one of the most fun, addictive series going and by the time you get to this new one you’ll be in for a tenth (or twenty-fifth for any completists who really get hooked…) treat.

This isn’t London. The rules are different up here, and so are the allegiances. Detective Sergeant Peter Grant takes a much-needed holiday up in Scotland. And he’ll need one when this is over…If more’s the merrier, then it’s ecstatic as his partner Beverley, their young twins, his mum, dad, his dad’s band and their dodgy manager all tag along.

Even his boss, DCI Thomas Nightingale, takes in the coastal airs as he trains Peter’s cousin Abigail in the arcane arts. And they’ll need them too, because Scotland’s Granite City has more than its fair share of history and mystery, myth  and murder.

When a body is found in a bus stop, fresh from the sea, the case smells fishy from the off. Something may be stirring beyond the bay – but there’s something far stranger in the sky.

Images: Stone and Sky front cover, Author Ben Aaronovitch

Not Quite Dead Yet – Holly Jackson

This is the adult fiction debut of Young Adult legend and author of the bestselling, award winning, screen-adapted, much loved A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder series. Also, this is my third attempt to review it without descending into a rant about how Young Adult is an often confusing and ambiguous category and people should read what they like and they didn’t have it in my day and…you get the idea – so I’ll get to the point.

Her previous books are ace, and this – which to be fair is pretty dark and violent and I’m assuming just contains more blood, guts, swearing and possibly exposed ankles than her YA novels – is also a rather brilliant and cleverly constructed thriller, centred around a woman surviving a horrifying attack – but only temporarily.

Told she has only days to live, she’s determined to use her rapidly diminishing last days to catch her own killer. Anyone put off by her backlist of books for younger folk should grab this immediately and learn just what great and compulsively gripping writer Holly Jackson is.

In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.

Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. She’ll do it later, she always says. She has time. Until, on the night of Halloween, Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder. She suffers a catastrophic brain injury.

The doctor is certain that within a week, she’ll suffer a deadly aneurysm. Jet never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her ex-best friend turned sister-in-law, her former boyfriend.

She only has seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something: Jet is going to solve her own murder.

Images: Not Quite Dead Yet front cover, Author Holly Jackson

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