Yorkshire


<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/07/9781804189139-1.jpg" alt="holiday reads" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">Getting Away by Kate Sawyer</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>Do you enjoy people watching whilst on holiday? This novel lets you do just that! You can watch one family as their lives unfold as we meet them on a succession of holidays. We follow them through eight decades of their lives as they are transformed through their holidays. With each new destination providing a backdrop as the family grows and changes, love stories begin and end, and secrets are revealed. It’s the newest story from the author of The Stranding, following the Smith family through eight decades from windy, stony British beaches to a Spanish timeshare and a fancy trip to New York. It’s the perfect escapism in the destinations, an emotional exploration of what family means and insight into what holidays are, and what they can do for us. There couldn’t be a more perfect holiday read! Published this July, available in hardback.</p><p> <a href="https://imaginedthings.co.uk/shop/9781785129636/">£16.99</a></p></div></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/07/9781035071975.jpg" alt="holidays reads" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">The Hideaway by Nikki Allen</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>A debut novel that will take you away to a luxury paradise resort in Costa Rican rainforest. Have you ever wished you could win the holiday of your dreams? This novel might make you think again. Five strangers have been chosen for an all-expenses-paid stay at an exclusive retreat. They are delighted, and leap at the chance to rest and get away from it all. Though, when they arrive the famous host isn’t there to greet them as expected. They’re unsure but keen to immerse themselves in this once-in-a-lifetime experience, so they head to a renowned local beauty spot. At the rejuvenating waterfall calamity strikes and as the group starts to panic, they’re plunged into a battle for survival. Perhaps their luxury getaway might just have turned into the holiday from hell. It’s a great, gripping escapist plot that will work wonderfully as a holiday read, and also, if you have the holiday blues this can act as a parable for how not all holidays are as wonderful as they might look from the outside! </p><p><a href="https://imaginedthings.co.uk/shop/9781035071975/">£9.99</a></p><p></p></div></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/07/9781398528420-2.jpg" alt="holiday reads" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>It&#8217;s our book club book of the month for August! This one stays with you long after you read it. It’s set on a Greek Island. It follows two newlyweds, Evelyn and Richard, who are still reeling from the chaos of their wedding. It’s nearing the end of the season and out at sea a storm is brewing. When they check in to an exclusive hotel, the Villa Rosa, the proprietor Isabella flirts outrageously with Richard while treating Evelyn with a rudeness bordering on contempt. Isabella tells them the story of &#8216;the sleepwalkers&#8217;: a couple who stayed at the hotel the year before and drowned in a tragic and unexplained accident. It starts to feel like the entire island is obsessed with &#8216;the sleepwalkers&#8217;, but what at first seems like a fun tale to tell before bed quickly evolves into a living nightmare. Caught in a web of deception and intrigue, where nothing and nobody are quite what they seem, Evelyn and Richard discover that their island paradise may in fact be hell on earth and that their only means of escape is to confront dark truths about themselves and those they love. Exhilarating, suspenseful, and subversively funny. Published in paperback in July this year. </p><p><a href="https://imaginedthings.co.uk/shop/9781398528420/">£9.99</a></p><p></p><p></p></div></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/07/9781805333616.jpg" alt="holiday reads" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">An Astronomer in Love by Antoine Lauren</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>Travel around the globe and through time in this heartwarming new book from the author of The Red Notebook. Takes place mainly in Paris and French Polynesia, with some flashbacks to India, over the course of a century. A real estate agent discovers an antique telescope left behind in belongings by an occupant from the past. Through it he starts to uncover a life of stargazing, obsession and new found love. Can the real estate agent use what he learns to help him find love in his modern day life? This is a lovely story for anyone who wants to take an epic journey without actually leaving the sun lounger. OUr bookseller Tabbetha read it in two days &#8211; it’s that good! Published in April this year in paperback. </p><p><a href="https://imaginedthings.co.uk/shop/9781805333616/">£10.99</a></p></div></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/yorkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/07/9781908745859.jpg" alt="holiday reads" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">Driving Over Lemons by Chris Stewart</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>A classic to savour in the sun. This is the true story of Chris. An the eternal optimist. A man who flies to Spain, sees a peasant farm on the wrong side of the river and, with scarcely a second thought, hands over a cash deposit. And then finds he has acquired not just the farm, but the farmer, too, who has no intention of leaving. Not to mention the lack of running water, electricity or even a bridge.It would be enough to send most people straight back home. But Chris and his wife Ana are made of stronger stuff – and besides, they have sunk all their savings into their farm, El Valero, and buying a flock of sheep. So there is no turning back. Life gets tough, but it also gets good.Driving Over Lemons is that rare thing – a funny, insightful book that charms you from the first sun-lit page to the last. And one that makes running an Andalucian mountain farm seem like a half-decent career move. It has been a major bestseller both in Britain and Spain. This was edition first published in paperback in 2020 to celebrate 25 years. </p><p><a href="https://imaginedthings.co.uk/shop/9781908745859/">£10.99</a></p><p>Pop into Imagined Things Bookshop on Montepellier Quarter in Harrogate or <a href="https://imaginedthings.co.uk">buy online</a></p></div></div></div></div>


Poolside picks: our top 5 holidays reads

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