6 Recent Second-Hand Book Purchases

With everyone spending a lot more time in their homes, it feels like we're all doing big clear outs. And as a result of this, charity shops are bursting at the seams with some treasures and some not-so treasures. Charities are struggling this year, and between wanting to support them more and wanting to shop more sustainably, I'm looking to them when I actually venture out of the house (mask-clad of course). 
Here's the books that I managed to pick up over the past few months, and I was SO excited to hunt all of these down. Some of them are even brand new copies! 
'Blood Orange' by Harriet Tyce
A thriller where both the barrister and defendant are guilty of harbouring secrets, I'm hoping this is of the level of drama of something like Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh. Alison is having an affair when she lands her biggest case yet: a murder trial where her client has confessed her guilt, but Alison thinks there's more to the story. At the same time, someone is trying to force Alison to face up to her own guilt. The synopsis and all the rave reviews I've seen have me really excited for this one.
'Once and For All' by Sarah Dessen 
This is the only book by Sarah Dessen that I've never read, and I couldn't resist reliving teenage Steph's main author love. This book centres around a character called Louna whose not sure that her tragic love life can life up to the fairytale weddings she works with her mother to create in her job as a wedding planner. When she meets Ambrose she's determined to hate this playboy, but things don't go to plan. The reviews for this are not *great*, so I'm really hoping this doesn't disappoint. Having read the reviews I'm now also not convinced I haven't read this before and it just wasn't that memorable...
'The Cactus' by Sarah Heywood
Susan Green likes her life under control: her flat is organised, her job requires her to use her logic all day and her relationship while intimate is not emotional. Suddenly faced with not only the loss of her mother, but the news that she's going to become a mother herself, Susan's life starts slipping out of her once-steady hands. I'm really loving contemporary romances that don't have *too* high stakes in this corona-ridden time because they're a bit of a comfort blanket for me. I'm hoping this is going to be one of those: a cute romance that might make me cry, but all works out well in the end.
'Call me by your Name' by André Aciman
A coming-of-age romance with gay characters, this book tells the intense story of Elio and Oliver's relationship. Elio is spending the summer at his parent's house in the Italian Riviera when Oliver comes to stay as a family guest and the pair end up on their own journeys into love and lust that neither anticipated. This book obviously has a LOT of hype around it, and I almost couldn't believe I'd managed to find a second hand copy on my first post-lockdown charity shop trip. I'm excited to delve into the beautiful prose of the story, and see why it has become so loved.
'The Marble Collector' by Cecelia Ahern
I read my first Cecelia Ahern book earlier this year and it was totally not what I was expecting (I assumed all her books were straightforward romances and it was a magical realism one), but I really enjoyed it. Sabrina Boggs is going through her father's belongings and comes across something that makes her realise she never knew him as well as she thought she did. This leads her to uncover not only the truth about her father, but maybe learn more about herself too. I'm hoping that I enjoy this one as much as If You Could See Me Now, and that it's another of her books with a magical element.
'The Five' by Hallie Rubenhold
This is something that's so far out of my comfort zone, but a book I'm really interested in reading. Written by a historian, this is all about the untold lives of the female victims of Jack the Ripper. Delving into the context of the time and what's known about the five women he killed, Rubenhold twists the narrative to show the other side to the story that we've all heard before. This will be my first sort of true crime novel, which is something I'm really keen to read more on. 
Have you picked up any new books recently?
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