You must have noticed there’s something called Football World Cup on at the moment. In our house, it’s wall-to-wall football (or soccer as it’s called in the US) and already only a few days in, I’m sick of it. (Is it me, or do you think it’ll be even worse now England have won their first match?)
Are you suffering from the same?
An Escape Plan
Luckily, I have the perfect escape plan. While the football lovers scream and shout at the TV (or cry as the case may be), why not find a quiet place and read a book instead? A book can be read on the grass outside too, or inside in bed or in a comfy chair, or anywhere in fact! Or you can listen to an audiobook if you can’t get away from the deafening excitement of your local football fans and need to drown out the noise.
I’ve got a few suggestions for how to make your escape with box sets that will stay the course of the World Cup and transport you far, far away from football. Whether you want to disappear into suspenseful European crime novels, or into alternative historical Roman crime thrillers or if romance and literary ficiton sees you reading well into injury time, I’m sure these books will keep you at the edge of your seat as much as those watching the action from Russia.
The Beatrice Stubbs Box Set
Meet Beatrice Stubbs, your new favorite detective!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 the 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 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.
Jump into these entertaining, well-written whodunnits today!
Across Oceans: Historical fiction collection
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?
Warning – once you start reading you will be up all night.
Second Chapter: A Box Set of 3 Novels
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.
Each book is a jewel and this box set is a trove of treasures for you to discover.
Roma Nova Box Set
If you haven’t read any of Alison Morton’s alternative history novels, I recommend you take a look at this incredible series of books.
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.
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. 
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.
All these writers have mad craft skills, so this is a lot of readerly bang for the buck!
The Bone Angel Trilogy Boxset: French Historical Family Life Saga
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
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 Box Set Includes:
- 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.
I hope my 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!
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Happy reading!
