Our winter break is fast approaching and you may want to take some time to sit back and relax with a good book. Here are some of the titles we’ve added to our Relaxed Reads collection recently, which you might want to check out.

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

“An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revenge – for readers of Patricia Highsmith, Sarah Waters and Ian McEwan’s Atonement.    It is fifteen years after the Second World War, and Isabel has built herself a solitary life of discipline and strict routine in her late mother’s country home, with not a fork or a word out of place. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel’s doorstep – as a guest, there to stay for the season…    In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel’s desperate need for control reaches boiling point. What happens between the two women leads to a revelation which threatens to unravel all she has ever known.”

Find it on the catalogue: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

The Rose Field by Philip Pullman

The final book in the Book of Dust series. The start the story at the beginning, you can find “Northern Lights” on the second floor of Fountains library.

‘Lyra: what will you do when you find this place in the desert, the opening to the world of the roses?’    ‘Defend it,’ Lyra said. ‘Die defending it.’    When readers left Lyra in The Secret Commonwealth she was alone, in the ruins of a deserted city. Pantalaimon had run from her – part of himself – in search of her imagination, which he believed she had lost. Lyra travelled across the world from her Oxford home in search of her dæmon. And Malcolm, loyal Malcolm, too journeyed far from home, towards the Silk Roads in search of Lyra . . .    In The Rose Field, their quests converge in the most dangerous, breathtaking and world-changing ways. They must take help from spies and thieves, gryphons and witches, old friends and new, learning all the while the depth and surprising truths of the alethiometer. All around them, the world is aflame – made terrifying by fear, power and greed.    As they move East, towards the red building that will reunite them and give them answers – on Dust, on the special roses, on imagination – so too does the Magisterium, at war against all that Lyra holds dear.

Find it on the catalogue: The Rose Field by Philip Pullman

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

In the summer of 1980, astrophysics professor Joan Goodwin begins training to be an astronaut at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond; mission specialists John Griffin and Lydia Danes; warmhearted 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.

Find it in the catalogue: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Sunstruck by William Rayfet Hunter

It’s summer and a young man walks through the gates of a luxurious mansion in the South of France. At the dinner table, the Blake siblings await him: Lily, his carefree friend from university; Dot, the rebellious younger sister; and Felix – handsome, charismatic and guarded.    Between sun-drenched days spent lounging by the pool and nights blurring into endless, opulent parties, the man is captivated by Felix’s restless allure. As his desire grows, the chance to become part of the family and their world of money and power starts to feel within reach.    But the idyllic haze of summer fades as they return to London and the cracks in the Blakes’ careful façade begin to show. With the two men tormented by demons of their own, their bond is increasingly tested and pulled apart at the seams. Their secrets and the choices they make will change not only their lives, but the future of those around them. Sunstruck is a dazzling and poignant exploration of race, status and the parts of ourselves we risk losing when we fall in love.

Find it in the catalogue: Sunstruck by William Rayfet Hunter

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In York, you can find Relaxed Reads on the ground floor of Fountains. In London, fiction titles can be found on the shelves in the 800s.