It’s on grass in summer, it can take place indoors, it’s pacey, full of tension, heart-wrenching, breath snatching and an alternative to football… Yes, reading!
And not just reading, but box sets where you get three or more books packaged together. Not only is this convenient, it will also save you money. So let’s escape from the noise and kerfuffle of football and enter the wonderful world of box sets…
The Beatrice Stubbs Box Set – JJ Marsh
For lovers of intelligent crime fiction, this boxset by J J Marsh with three heart-racing European adventures is a must read.
Beatrice Stubbs of Scotland Yard: detective inspector, metaphor mixer and stubborn survivor. Battling crime by day and her own demons by night, the question is always the same: justice or law?
Behind Closed Doors sees Beatrice seconded to Switzerland. Wealthy, powerful men are committing suicide. Or are they? When the same DNA is found at each scene, DI Stubbs suspects someone is dispensing a personal retribution. Beneath the chocolate and charm, Zurich hides many secrets.
In Raw Material, Beatrice is divided. Hunting a sex offender on London Underground while trying to investigate illegal activity on a Welsh beach stretches her to her limits. Her partner and neighbour decide to assist. But amateur detectives and professional criminals make a bad mix.
Tread Softly. Time for a sabbatical. A gourmet trip to the north of Spain is exactly what DI Beatrice Stubbs needs. Until she meets an old acquaintance who lures her into an investigation. Beatrice is up to her neck in missing persons, murder, corruption and Rioja.
Across Oceans – Clare Flynn
Uprooted from their homes and forced to face the challenges and struggles of adapting to a new world.These three stand-alone full-length novels are from the acclaimed historical fiction author, Clare Flynn. Each novel will transport you across oceans and back in time.
A Greater World takes you to the beautiful Blue Mountains of Australia in the 1920s.
With Kurinji Flowers you travel to the tea plantations of Southern India in the 1930s and 40s – the last years of British colonial rule.
Letters from a Patchwork Quilt carries you to the ugly industrial north of Victorian England and to St Louis, Missouri.
None of the characters go where they have to go by choice, and all face life-changing challenges. Can love make the difference? Will it stand the course?
Second Chapter – Jane Davis
Says Jane, “Fiction is never going to provide a complete answer, but it does force both writer and reader to walk in another person’s shoes. And, in many ways, it is the exploration and not the answer that is important.”
Like Margaret Atwood, Davis conjures a fresh, new voice and style for every story, be it a man’s rediscovery of his mother through her photographs, the taboo of pupil/teacher relationships outside the classroom or a haunting tale of a young girl and her visions.
In I Stopped Time, there’s an estranged mother.
A Funeral for an Owl considers teenage runaways.
In These Fragile Things mother Elaine is obsessed by the child she lost, almost to the exclusion of the child she has.
A Time and Place –Triskele Box Set
If you are after a selection of genres, but want to read books that still take you somewhere new, the Triskele Box Set is for you. 
A collection of seven wonderful novels with mystery, literary and historical fiction from Triskele Books is packaged together for your enjoyment.The box set includes:
Crimson Shore by Gillian Hamer.
Rats by Jane Hicks.
Behind Closed Doors by JJ Marsh
Wolfsangel by Liza Perrat.
Delirium: The Rimbaud Delusion by Barbara Scott-Emmett.
The Rise of Zenobia by JD Smith.
Ghost Town by Catriona Troth.
The Bone Angel Trilogy Boxset – Liza Perrat
Liza Perrat writes excellent historical fiction. Steeped in French history with vivid, resourceful characters, this trilogy transports us through the past, leaving us feeling that no matter what we are confronted with across time, the human spirit endures.
The Nordic Heart Box Set
A new collection of novels from acclaimed writer Helena Halme – This was love. The stuff she’d read about in books since she was a teenager.
Peter is a British Navy Officer, in love with his career. Kaisa is a Finnish student, engaged to be married to someone else.
They meet under the sparkling chandeliers of the British Embassy in Helsinki.
All the four novels of this bittersweet love story between the Finnish student, Kaisa, and dashing British Navy Officer, Peter, are included in the collection.
- The English Heart: Can their love go the distance?
- The Faithful Heart: Is there a happy ever after?
- The Good Heart: Can they love again?
- The True Heart: Can love conquer all?
If you enjoy Nordic fiction, or like books by Jojo Moyes and Liane Moriarty, you’ll love this stylish romance series spanning ten years and three countries: Finland, Scotland and England.
And of course…
The Roma Nova Box Set
21st century Roma Nova – powered by the Roman mindset, ruled by women.
Praetorian Carina Mitela is courageous, fallible and sassy. She hefts a gladius or assault rifle as required. But can she defeat treachery, conspiracy and a dark nemesis and still keep an enduring love burning?
“My ancestors fought to hold this land sixteen hundred years ago. I’m not letting some throwback destroy it.”
Nearly a thousand pages of action adventure and alternative history thrills in three books with over 150 five star reviews on Amazon between them.
I hope these recommendations help you escape the World Cup. Leave those football fans to their ball games and dive into the wonderful and satisfying world of box set fiction instead!
Find us on Twitter: #bethere #bereading
(Graphic courtesy of Helena Halme http://www.helenahalme.com)
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, is available now. Audiobooks are available for the first four of the series.
Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines… Get INCEPTIO, the series starter, FREE as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email newsletter
[…] If football isn’t your thing, now is the perfect time to discover new fiction. […]