Please please please help me find a book to read ...

[ClaraFox]

I used to read all the time and I don't know what happened. I really struggle to get into anything these days. I've got a million samples on my kindle and just can't seem to move past the first chapter or two with anything!

I want something gripping and engaging from the first page. I want it to be easy reading. I like thrillers , psychological thrillers, police stuff, don't mind decent chick lit. I tried to read ' the book thief ' this weekend and absolutely hated it. I don't like Norwegian stuff. I hated Heft. I couldn't get into the Goldfinch. Same with Gone Girl. Got some way into Agatha Raisin and lost interest. Ditto with Robert Galbraith.

Please please - any recommendations for something that's going to instantly grab me?

I know it sounds stupid but I'm actually concerned that I can no longer read properly! Just seem to lack concentration so I think I need something fast paced, absorbing or exciting.

[maudpringle]

Have a look out for Laurie Graham or Anne Tyler.

[LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob]

Does it have to be a thriller? When I'm not in the zone I tend to read some like Sarah Addisson Allen, gentle books with a twist of magical realism all set in the Deep South.

I've just finished Some Kind of Fairytale which was brilliant. Starts with an elderly couple on Christmas Day, they lost their daughter twenty years ago. There's a knock at the door and it's there daughter, only she doesn't look any older.

It was gripping from the start.

[annaban]

Hi OP, I really enjoyed the girl with the dragon tattoo (trilogy). I read them all on honeymoon a few years ago - v page turnery

[oversomeniagara]

RIVERS OF LONDON SERIES by Ben Aaronovitch. Police procedural with magic. Really easy to read and entertaining. You also learn lots about the history of London.

I've absolutely binged through the audiobooks and can thoroughly recommend them too.

[oversomeniagara]

I should add, it's set in the present day London within the modern met police force so is urban fantasy rather than something like Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. www.amazon.co.uk/Rivers-London-1/dp/0575097582?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob]

Just put Rivers of London on my kindle.

[Stockhausen]

Last book I read was The Good Father, loved it!

The Lifeboat was very absorbing, Charlotte somebody?

Have you read water for elephants? Trash?

[oversomeniagara]

Hope you enjoy it! I will feel responsible if you don't.

[eslteacher]

I definitely second The Rosie Project. Also, The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty. It could be seen as chick lit but with a kind of thriller-y / mystery streak. I found it totally gripping from page 1. Also, I read another of her books, What Alice Forgot, and found it to be similarly absorbing.

Of all the books I've read recently, those stand out as being the big page-turners that I just didn't want to put down.

[Southeastdweller]

I agree on Kiss Me First.

Notes on a Scandal also excellent.

[ClaraFox]

I read notes on a scandal years ago ( back when I could read with no problems! ) and it was good.

I'd recommend the following if anyone's interested..

rumours of a hurricane
loreleis secret ( so good!! )
forever amber ( oh god - the ending!!)
I've downloaded a load of samples based on all of these so I'm hopeful something will grab me

[shartsi]

Dorothy koomson books. I,m currently reading flavours of love, loving it.

[Orangesarenottheonlyfruit]

Can I add The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill. He wrote the Dalziel and Pascoe books. It is a utterly gripping and terribly exciting of corruption and lust etc. Some of it is a bit of a stretch but you get so swept up that the more unbelievable aspects are easily overlooked, great fun.

[ClaraFox]

off to check out the woodcutter

[Beamur]

Not thrillers, but quite gripping.
Kate Atkinson - Life after Life
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
Perhaps also
The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey

[Pukkapik]

Restless by William Boyd.
Really good read, pacy, female spy story set in 2nd world war and 1970s.

[Pukkapik]

Also, Sweet tooth by Ian McEwan - same sort of category as Restless.