Recommended Reads for Adults
178429196X 
Paperback 
Year: 2015
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Quercus
Resource type: Physical
Note: Brighton, 1950. When the body of a girl is found, cut into three, Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens is reminded of a magic trick, the Zig Zag Girl. The inventor of the trick, Max Mephisto, is an old friend of Edgar's. They served together in the war as part of a shadowy unit called the Magic Men. Max is still on the circuit, touring seaside towns.
0241986117 
Paperback
Year: 2020
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Resource type: Physical
Note: The Miltons are a powerful old New York family - the kind of family that used to run the world. And in 1935, they still do. Kitty and Ogden Milton seem to have it all: an elegant apartment on the Upper East Side, two beautiful little boys, a love everyone envies. When a tragedy befalls them, Ogden comforts Kitty the only way he knows how - they go
1786492938 
Paperback
Year: 2020
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Corvus
Resource type: Physical
Note: One year ago, Avery's best friend Sadie was found dead, dashed on the rocks the night of the infamous end-of-summer party. To Avery's disbelief, the police quickly rule Sadie's death as suicide.
1784704865 
Paperback
Year: 2020
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books
Resource type: Physical
Note: It's just a normal morning for Anna McDonald. Gym kits, packed lunches, getting everyone up and ready. Until she opens the front door to her best friend, Estelle. Anna turns to see her own husband at the top of the stairs, suitcase in hand. They're leaving together and they're taking Anna's two daughters with them. Left alone in the big, dark house
1509811109 
Paperback
Year: 2016
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Pan Books
Resource type: Physical
Note: Evie Flynn has always been the black sheep of her family - a dreamer and a drifter, unlike her over-achieving elder sisters. She's tried making a name for herself as an actress, a photographer and a singer, but nothing has ever worked out. Now she's stuck in temp hell, with a sensible, pension-planning boyfriend.
0349419086 
Paperback
Year: 2019
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Piatkus
Resource type: Physical
Note: Seraphine Mayes and her brother Danny are known as the summer-born Summerbournes: the first set of summer twins to be born at Summerbourne House. But on the day they were born their mother threw herself to her death, their au pair fled, and the village thrilled with whispers of dark-cloaked figures and a stolen baby. Now 25, and mourning the recent death of her father, Seraphine uncovers a family photograph taken on the day the twins were born featuring her parents posing with just one baby. Seraphine soon become fixated with the notion that she and Danny may not be twins.
1784755427 
Paperback
Year: 2019
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Arrow Books
Resource type: Physical
Note: Brighton Beach, 1993: Teenagers Nell and Jude find the body of a young woman and when no one comes to claim her, she becomes known as the Brighton Mermaid. Nell is still struggling to move on when, three weeks later, Jude disappears. 25 years on, Nell quits her job to find out who the Brighton Mermaid really was - and what happened to her best friend that summer?
1409175227 
Paperback
Year: 2019
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Orion Books
Resource type: Physical
Note: Rosemary has lived in Brixton all her life. But now everything she knows is changing - the library where she used to work has closed, the family fruit and veg shop has become a trendy bar, and her beloved husband George is gone. Kate has just moved and feels alone in a city that is too big for her.
1784755621 
Paperback
Year: 2019
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Arrow Books
Resource type: Physical
Note: You never forget your first love. 18 years ago, Olivia learned to live without Sean Kenyon.She moved on, building a life with her husband Richmond and their two children in the picturesque town Kesterley-on-Sea. But when Sean unexpectedly appears on Olivia's doorstep, her world is turned upside down once more.
1405937181 
Paperback
Year: 2018
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Resource type: Physical
Note: Costa Biography Award 2018 Shortlist In one devastating week, Raynor and her husband Moth lost their home of 20 years, just as a terminal diagnosis took away their future together. With nowhere else to go, they decided to walk the South West Coast Path: a 630-mile sea-swept trail from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall. This ancient, wind-battered landscape strips them of ever
0099273969 
Paperback
Year: 1999
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Resource type: Physical
Note: Originally published in 1952 The Nobel Prize-winning novel set off the coast of Havana, telling of an old man, a young boy and a giant fish
1447259122 
Paperback
Year: 2018
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Pan Books
Resource type: Physical
Note: In the village of Aldwick on the Sussex coast, 16-year-old Hazel faces a long, dull summer with just her self-centred mother Francine for company. But then Francine decamps to London with her lover Charles, Oswald Mosley's blackshirts arrive in Aldwick and Hazel's summer suddenly becomes more interesting.
0552172928 
Paperback
Year: 2018
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Corgi Books
Resource type: Physical
Note: Busy mum of twins Liv is looking forward to summer at the Beach Hut in Devon, even if she feels that she and Matt left things on a strange note. She's sure it's just that he's too busy at work to join them on holiday, not that he wants time alone.
0751566233 
Paperback
Year: 2018
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Sphere
Resource type: Physical
Note: When Ana inherits a broken-down camper van from her best friend, she takes the chance for a quick trip to Cornwall - some sea air and fish and chips on the beach is just the tonic she needs. But St Felix has bigger plans for Ana. She discovers a series of unsent postcards, dating back to the 1950s, hidden in the upholstery of the van.
1786483432 
Paperback
Year: 2018
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Quercus
Resource type: Physical
Note: For many years Colette has avoided returning to her homeland - the magical island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer in Southern Brittany - afraid to confront the painful memories she left behind. She is living on the Cornish coast when she hears about her mother Thea's failing health and realises that the time has come for her to go home.
0008271437 
Paperback
Year: 2018
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Avon
Resource type: Physical
Note: Cal and Demi are preparing to launch their beloved Kilhallon Resort as a wedding venue. Cakes are baking, Cornish flowers are blooming, and fairy lights are twinkling. With the cliff-top setting and coastal views, it's the perfect place for a magical marriage ceremony. But their first clients are no ordinary couple.
0751564826 
Paperback
Year: 2018
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Sphere
Resource type: Physical
Note: On the quayside next to the Endless Beach sits the Summer Seaside Kitchen. It's a haven for tourists and locals alike, who all come to eat the freshest local produce on the island and catch up with the gossip. Flora, who runs the cafe, feels safe and content - unless she thinks too hard about her relationship with Joel.
0099512793 
Paperback
Year: 2008
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Resource type: Physical
Note: It is June, 1962. In a hotel on the Dorset coast, overlooking Chesil Beach, Edward and Florence, who got married that morning, are sitting down to dinner in their room. Neither is entirely able to suppress their anxieties about the wedding night to come
0099478471 
Paperback
Year: 2004
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Resource type: Physical
Note: A gang war is raging in Brighton. Pinkie is 17 and fighting for leadership. He has already proved his ruthlessness by killing Hale, a journalist. But he isn't prepared for the courageous Ida Arnold who is determined to avenge Hale's death.
0749079142 
Paperback
Year: 2009
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Resource type: Physical
Note: October 1854. As an autumnal evening draws to a close, crowds of passengers rush onto the soon to depart London to Brighton Express. A man watches from shadows nearby, grimly satisfied when the train pulls out of the station.
Recommended Reads for Children and Young People
0241599199 
Paperback 
Year: 2022
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Resource type: Physical
Note: Every year Isabel spends a perfect summer at her family friends' house. There's the swimming pool at night, the private stretch of sandy beach - and the two boys. Unavailable, aloof Conrad - who she's been in love with forever - and friendly, relaxed Jeremiah, the only one who's ever really paid her any attention.
1408357232 
Hardback
Year: 2019
Language: English
Media class: Hardback
Publisher: Orchard Books
Resource type: Physical
Note: Based on Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid" Hans Christian Andersen's entrancing tale of love, set between land and sea, is retold by renowned storyteller Geraldine McCaughrean and brought to life in magical silhouette artwork by illustrator Laura Barrett. When she falls in love with a prince, the little mermaid persuades a sea witch to replace her tail with legs so she can live on land.
1509878823 
Paperback
Year: 2018
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Resource type: Physical
1408877120 
Paperback
Year: 2017
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Resource type: Physical
Note: Mermaids Beattie, Mimi and Zelda are enjoying a summer on land with legs when they receive a strange CRABAGRAM ordering them to return home at once. Some seriously BAD MERMAIDS are on the loose and the girls are the only ones who can stop them. If they're going to save the day, they'll need answers. And a clam car. Definitely piranha-print nail polish. Possibly not the talking seahorse. CAN THEY DO IT? Filled with magical mysteries, fabulous fashion, and a serious piranha problem, Bad Mermaids brings a whole new twist to the underwater world of mermaids. If you enjoyed The Little Mermaid, you'll love this too!
0192734881 
Paperback
Year: 2014
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Resource type: Physical
Note: Along with his friends, a grumpy old albatross, a short-sighted mermaid, and a friendly island called Cliff, Oliver sets out to rescue his missing parents. On their perilous journey the friends meet evil islands, a boy called Stacey and more sea monkeys than you can wave some seaweed at. Originally published: 2013
0385609531 
Hardback
Year: 2005
Language: English
Media class: Hardback
Publisher: Doubleday
Resource type: Physical
Note: Children in Florida try to expose an illegal pollution operation, and clear their father who has been jailed for previous attempts to stop the polluter
1409586103 
Paperback
Year: 2015
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Usborne
Resource type: Physical
Note: Danni never knew about her family's strange legacy until her mum disappeared. And now the only way to save those she loves from a living hell is to embrace her incredible new gift, however impossible it seems
1783442263 
Paperback
Year: 2015
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: Andersen Press
Resource type: Physical
Note: Jamie and Ned are twins. They do everything together: riding their bikes, beachcombing outside their house, watching their favourite episodes of Star Trek. But Ned is sick, and one day, he may leave Jamie behind. When they discover a strange creature on the beach, Ned wants one more adventure and decides to keep him secretly in their garage.
000746410X 
Paperback 
Year: 2012
Language: English
Media class: Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's
Resource type: Physical