It’s my birthday! Well, it’s my blog’s birthday actually. Yes, three years ago today I posted my first ever blog post on A Little Book Problem. Where did that time go? And look how far I’ve come. I never would have guessed when I started this blog just to keep track of a reading challenge where it would end up or how much it would give me along the way.

In order to celebrate this milestone, I am going to be giving away a little prize (although, aren’t people supposed to give me presents on my birthday?) It seems to be one of the inevitable side effects of book blogging that I end up with duplicate copies of some fabulous books, and this year has been no different so, in the prize bundle are brand new, unread copies of the following books:

The Familiars by Stacey Halls (Hardback)

In a time of suspicion and accusation, to be a woman is the greatest risk of all . . .

Fleetwood Shuttleworth is 17 years old, married, and pregnant for the fourth time. But as the mistress at Gawthorpe Hall, she still has no living child, and her husband Richard is anxious for an heir. When Fleetwood finds a letter she isn’t supposed to read from the doctor who delivered her third stillbirth, she is dealt the crushing blow that she will not survive another pregnancy.

Then she crosses paths by chance with Alice Gray, a young midwife. Alice promises to help her give birth to a healthy baby, and to prove the physician wrong.

As Alice is drawn into the witchcraft accusations that are sweeping the north-west, Fleetwood risks everything by trying to help her. But is there more to Alice than meets the eye?

Soon the two women’s lives will become inextricably bound together as the legendary trial at Lancaster approaches, and Fleetwood’s stomach continues to grow. Time is running out, and both their lives are at stake.

Only they know the truth. Only they can save each other.

Friend Request by Laura Marshall

Maria Weston wants to be friends with me.

Maybe that had been the problem all along: Maria Weston had wanted to be friends with me, but I let her down.

She’s been hovering at the edge of my consciousness for all of my adult life, although I’ve been good at keeping her out, just a blurred shadow in the corner of my eye, almost but not quite out of sight.

Maria Weston wants to be friends.

But Maria Weston has been dead for more than twenty-five years.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

‘I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no light without shadow; or rather, no shadow unless there is also light.’

Offred is a Handmaid in The Republic of Gilead, a religious totalitarian state in what was formerly known as the United States. She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford – her assigned name, Offred, means ‘of Fred’. She has only one function: to breed. If Offred refuses to enter into sexual servitude to repopulate a devastated world, she will be hanged. Yet even a repressive state cannot eradicate hope and desire. As she recalls her pre-revolution life in flashbacks, Offred must navigate through the terrifying landscape of torture and persecution in the present day, and between two men upon which her future hangs.

(The edition being offered as a prize has a different cover to the one shown here.)

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Alicia Berenson lived a seemingly perfect life until one day six years ago.

When she shot her husband in the head five times.

Since then she hasn’t spoken a single word.

It’s time to find out why.

If Only I Could Tell You by Hannah Beckerman

Audrey’s family has fallen apart. Her two grown-up daughters, Jess and Lily, are estranged, and her two teenage granddaughters have never been allowed to meet. A secret that echoes back thirty years has splintered the family in two, but is also the one thing keeping them connected.

As tensions reach breaking point, the irrevocable choice that one of them made all those years ago is about to surface. After years of secrets and silence, how can one broken family find their way back to each other?

Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski

One body. Six stories. Which one is true?

1997. Scarclaw Fell. The body of teenager Tom Jeffries is found at an outward bound centre. Verdict? Misadventure. But not everyone is convinced. And the truth of what happened in the beautiful but eerie fell is locked in the memories of the tight-knit group of friends who embarked on that fateful trip, and the flimsy testimony of those living nearby. 2017.

Enter elusive investigative journalist Scott King, whose podcast examinations of complicated cases have rivaled the success of Serial, with his concealed identity making him a cult internet figure. In a series of six interviews, King attempts to work out how the dynamics of a group of idle teenagers conspired with the sinister legends surrounding the fell to result in Jeffries’ mysterious death. And who’s to blame…

As every interview unveils a new revelation, you’ll be forced to work out for yourself how Tom Jeffries died, and who is telling the truth.

As well as the books above, the prize bundle includes a voucher for an Italian meal for two at the Prezzo restaurant of your choice and an enamel book pin.

All you have to do to win, is make sure you are following the blog, either by email, on WordPress or on Twitter and tell me what book you would send me as a surprise birthday gift.

Competition will be open until 31 January. UK entries only please. Winner will be chosen at random and announced here and on Twitter.  Prize will be posted out as soon as I receive the winner’s address. If the prize is not claimed within seven days, prize will be forfeited and I will chose a second recipient. No cash alternative is available.

Good luck, and thank you for supporting the blog, I do greatly appreciate it.