Published By: Hutchinson Heinemann
Pages: 464
Released On: 12/02/2026
It’s the summer of 1985 and the residents of Delmont Close are preparing a neighbourhood barbecue to watch the biggest music event in history: Live Aid. A day like no other that will end having reached millions and changed the lives of all who attend.
House-proud Lydia Gordon, whose idols are Princess Di and Delia Smith, is determined to put on a show that will impress everyone – with her posh garden and state-of-the-art television, and her sweet husband and two children, Hanna and David.
But as the guests flood into number nine, so do all of the secrets that have been kept in the close.
Rita, a new neighbour from Australia, is hoping for a fresh start but harbours a shocking event in her past; Steve, a young Falklands veteran, battles his own demons; and Mr Wilson is surely too good-looking to ever be trusted.
But as the hours count down to the last performance of the night, it’s Lydia who faces the heart-breaking truth that her immaculate home and flawless family might not be so perfect after all.
And if each of their neighbours is guilty of hiding something, so are the Gordons at number nine …
*****
Thanks to Jennie and Hutchinson Heinemann for the gifted proof of this title in return for an honest review.
This has to be the most anticipated second novel of any author at the moment. In my opinion, Jennie’s debut novel – The List of Suspicious Things – was beyond words, and so to live up to that could have been a daunting and difficult talk. But she has more than met the challenge.
Where I think she excels the most is in her character creation. She has a gift for giving us relatable, recognisable, familiar characters across a wide range of ages, backgrounds and roles in the story. She’s given us heroes and villains as it were, some trustworthy and others you’re not quite sure of. Don’t get me wrong, the plot is there, but for me, who prefers characters over plot, it is almost second to the characters; they are what hold this story together and what makes you invest in it. She’s one of the best at characterisation, in my opinion.
It’s another novel that is filled with love and friendship and the importance of a supportive community. It’s about what you’ve done, what you haven’t, wat you regret and what you wish for. She really makes it feel like a big family that the reader is immediately a part of.
I was eight years away from being born when Live Aid was on, but like everyone else I have since watched it many times and so I can almost get a feel for what it was like at the end. And Jennie has depicted it to the letter. It is perfect, like you’re wrapped up within the fuss around the show, like you’re the one sitting down ready to watch it. It’s so nostalgic and echoes the 1980s perfectly, down to the hairstyles and the food and the décor.
Now, having not been around in the 80s, I can’t say for sure it’s accurate, but it reads as if it is. And I know Jennie was around in the 90s but still, the amount of research she would have had to do to get it so accurate, rom the brand of cigarettes to the once loved but forgotten about home gadgets.
It’s very different but also similar to TLOST. It’s similar in the sense that she has created this multi-layered, multi-character, community who are all not what they seem. But I found TLOST more of a thriller set in a contemporary space, whereas this is mostly told through conversation rather than action, you’re not necessarily sure what the secrets are, it’s all very hush hush. It’s almost like you’re a detective trying to look in the gaps that these characters create for you – it’s very clever.
It’s another one of those books that makes you question whether you should even try to write a book, because it will never been as good as this one.
You wonder how a book of this length can be told over just one day, surely it must get slow? But it doesn’t. Somehow she’s managed the pace of it perfectly.
I didn’t want it to end at all. I felt the same way with TLOST. I flew through that and was then annoyed that I hadn’t taken my time with it, but I’ve done exactly the same thing here. I couldn’t help it. It’s so fun and natural to read that you just disappear into this world and then all of a sudden you’re finished and you want to start again.
I know she’s only two books in, but I can say hand on heart that I will read everything she writes – even her grocery list if she’d let me. I sure hope she has a long writing career because I, and everyone else, needs her talent on their bookshelves.
Now all I need to know is, when is book three coming out?
Books By Your Bedside 