Recommend a book you couldnt put down/read in one sitting?

[Illbefinejustbloodyfine]

I feel crap, on the sofa with a blanket for a quiet day. Need a new book to read but nothing I own is taking my fancy. Would love to get stuck into a page turner i can get on my kindle

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

I’ve just finished The Chemist by AA Dhand. Really gripping thriller, I’d thoroughly recommend it.

I always find either Lisa Jewell or Nicci French thrillers unputdownable (with NF, particularly the older ones, although some of them leave me feeling really uneasy, so if I do put them down, I’m often in a peculiar mood - you have to get to the end).

Ooh yes, fantastic read. Hard agree on this one.

Another vote for The Fingersmith! I love any of the Jill Mansell ones, especially the ones set in Cornwall. They always feel like a cuddle in a book! But I’m bias as she’s my favourite author.
Completely different genre - I do also love a twisted Stephen King or Wilbur Smith

And Then She Was Gone - Lisa Jewell. I couldn't put that down. Very sad though.
The Hearts Invisible Furies - John Boyne.

My rec is The Secrets Between Us.

I’ve just finished Rare Singles by Ben Myers, and I absolutely ate it up.

Just finished The Other Bennett Sister. Started yesterday 😃

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters had me completely gripped.

I recently read The English Understand Wool in one sitting - fab book - but it is more like a short story.

My elderly uncle was given a copy of Jane Eyre and stayed up through the night to finish it. he called me and said "why didn't anyone tell me what the classics were like before now"

Fourth Wing - really engaging - but it is fantasy so not everyone’s cup of tea.

Here for the recommendations really, but after a low year for reading in 2025, I bought the ‘Keeper of Lost Things’ in a charity shop and ploughed through it.

Not challenging in the slightest, however I picked it up at night instead of scrolling so that’s okay in my book.

Definitely back into reading now.

My husbands wife - if you like popcorn thrillers.

The wedding people.

Sandwich.

Anything by Sarah Waters.
The Crimson Petal and The White/Under The Skin by Michel Faber.

A kind friend sent me the first of the Ruth Galloway novels by Ellie Griffiths (thrillers with ongoing relationship through the series) when I was sofa-bound after illness. Very easy to read and definitely page turners. 🙂

A Terrible Kindness. Read it in one go - still stayed with me for a long time.

I often finish a light crime/mystery novel in a sitting.

But the one I really couldn't put down was Dorothy Dunnett's Checkmate, when it was first published. Not much use to op, though, as it's the final book in a series and you need to have read the others first.

Failing that, what about Jodi Taylor? Just One Damned Thing After Another is the first in the Chronicles of St Mary's. Or Georgette Heyer is usually guaranteed to improve your mood if you're feeling a bit crap.

American dirt
notes on an execution
(and thanks to MN thread for these!)

Rachel’s holiday by Marion Keyes. Loved it

Anything by Belinda Bauer. It can get a bit gruesome at times but there's not a word wasted IMO.

I hope you are just bloody fine very soon @Illbefinejustbloodyfine

Not new books, but ones I read in one sitting as a teenager:
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde

And a more recent silly uplifting book:
Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding (who wrote Bridget Jones)

A.J. Pearce, Dear Mrs Bird, the first in the Emmy Lake Chronicles. They're set during the war, so bad things do happen, but the general mood is upbeat and the importance of friendship is an ongoing theme.

"Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine". It's superb 💕

Came to say this!