Books of the Month

by Faith Hogan

€13.99

From the bestselling author of The Bookshop Ladies , Faith Hogan, comes a wonderfully gripping and poignant story of two sisters and their family hotel on peaceful Pin Hill Island, once a thriving family business now struggling to survive. All Blythe Carney ever wanted was to become a hotelier and run her family’s business, the Hope Square Hotel. But fate, and her grandfather, intervened and it fell into her younger sister Rae’s lap, taking her dreams with it. Now Blythe owns Still Water House, the most exclusive guest house on Pin Hill Island, but she can’t help but feel she’s still not living the life she was meant to. Rae Johnson had no interest in taking over the hotel, her dreams lay elsewhere, but when she ended up with the family business her sister had set her heart on, her sense of duty to continue their family legacy with her husband was too strong to ignore. Now, fifteen years later, newly widowed Rae is struggling to keep the hotel afloat and she knows that selling it could be the final straw in her already fragile relationship with her sister. What do you do when your sister lives the life that you’d set your heart on? And when the perfect storm is brewing, surely, it’s time to put aside the jealousy and disappointment that can tear a family apart, and fight for the future you have always dreamed of? Ideal for readers who: Have a real soft spot for heart-warming Irish fiction centred on sisters, inheritance and complex family bonds. Are drawn to atmospheric novels set around hotels, guest houses and close-knit island communities. Respond to emotional, multi-layered stories about second chances, jealousy, grief and reconciliation. Look for engaging book club reads packed with compelling family drama and genuine warmth.

by Ciara Mageean

€21.99

Few Irish track athletes are as universally loved as Ciara Mageean, who has remained endearingly down-to-earth, candid and optimistic despite the dramatic twists and turns of her world-class career. In 2024 she finally won a European title, crossing the line to secure that gold medal in a moment of pure euphoria. Two months later, at the peak of her power, an excruciating injury derailed her once again, forcing an eleventh-hour withdrawal from the Paris Olympics. In the City of Love she went, overnight, from competitor to heartbroken tourist. Nothing, she thought, will ever be as bad as this … and then she got the worst news of her life. My Greatest Race is a sports memoir like no other, a devastating contrast between the elite athlete road that so few get to travel and the all-too-familiar cancer journey that so many do. Ideal for readers who: Look to sports memoirs for identity, resilience and purpose beyond medals. Follow triumphs, injuries and emotional honesty through an elite racing life. See Olympic heartbreak as part of the story, not its whole definition. Value athletes as whole people, not just performances on the track.

by Gillian Perdue

€15.99

Thea wakes from a coma, having forgotten much of the recent past. As well as learning to walk again, she studies the list of ‘facts’ she keeps on her phone, hoping something will unlock her memory. Her top three facts are: I was in Italy I was with the people I love the most I fell down a ravine and I’m lucky to be alive But as Thea gets hazy glimpses of the lead-up to her fall, the facts stop adding up. Trapped at home in the middle of the Irish countryside, dependent on those who were on holiday with her – her fiancé, her brother, her sister-in-law and her best friend – terrifying questions surface: Was I pushed? Why are they lying? Who can I trust? As memories come tumbling back, Thea realises she is in race against time to figure things out – and that her life hangs in the balance. Ideal for readers who: Pick up psychological thrillers built around missing memories and unreliable facts. Are gripped by Irish countryside settings where loved ones may be hiding the truth. Value family-and-friend suspense where every reassurance feels suspicious.

by Patrick Freyne

€14.99

The Heathens thought of themselves as 'the 1000th best band of all time'. Then their tour van crashed, and one of their members died. Twenty years later, weird things are happening in Dublin, bringing the surviving members of the band together in ways none of them could have anticipated and lifting the lid on mysteries from their shared past. Experts in a Dying Field is a gloriously sharp, witty and surprising novel about friendship, secrets, the strange workings of grief and guilt, and the joyful alchemy of music, from a writer with a unique ability to access humour and deep emotion. Ideal for readers who: Go for novels about old bands, unfinished grief and friendship’s afterlife. Follow Dublin music-scene wit as secrets from a shared past resurface. Cherish stories where humour and sorrow sit on the same page. Savour creative lives, guilt and the odd magic of getting the group back together.

by Virginia Evans

€10.00

Discover the word-of-mouth bestselling phenomenon that thousands of readers are calling their favourite book of the year! THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOODREADS READERS' CHOICE AWARDS 'A warm, funny gem of a novel' LAURA HACKETT, THE TIMES 'Masterful . . . I was delighted and moved' NEW YORK TIMES 'I can't praise it enough. It's an absolute triumph' CLARE CHAMBERS 'Tremendous' FREDRIK BACKMAN 'Shows us what a glorious thing growing older can be' FLORENCE KNAPP 'The year's breakout novel no one saw coming' WALL STREET JOURNAL Every morning, Sybil Van Antwerp sits down to write letters - to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to attend a class she desperately wants to take, to her favourite authors to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. Because at seventy-three, Sybil has used her correspondence - witty and wise - to make sense of the world. But beyond the page, she has spent the last thirty years keeping the people who love her at arms' length... Until letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life. Now, Sybil must send the letter she has been writing for all these years - and find forgiveness within herself in order to move on. Sybil Van Antwerp's life of letters might be 'a very small thing', but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read. *Over 90,000 five-star reviews on Goodreads* Ideal for readers who: Gravitate towards literary fiction beautifully shaped by letters, personal memory and long-awaited forgiveness. Connect deeply with older protagonists reckoning with their past while slowly reconnecting with the world. Enjoy noticing how elegant correspondence, classic books and late-life transformations reshape a character's universe. Prefer warm, intelligent, character-led novels that deliver plenty of wit alongside gentle emotional weight.

by Michelle McDonagh

€16.99

Hazel McNamara is on the phone with her husband Darragh when she hears the screech of tyres. He screams her name - then, silence. The jeep he was driving is soon found, overturned in a field off the motorway, but Darragh has vanished. As days pass and the Gardaí investigate, Hazel's carefully built life starts to crumble. She soon discovers that her charismatic property developer husband has been keeping secrets - personal and financial - that could put her family's safety and future at risk. But where is he? Is something sinister afoot, after he got into bed with the wrong people? And what is the connection to an abandoned mental asylum in a small town in County Galway? The answer, when she eventually gets it, will shock Hazel beyond belief. Taut, unsettling, rich with suspense, If These Walls Could Talk is a gripping West of Ireland thriller about deception, obsession and the haunting truths we hide - even from those closest to us. Ideal for readers who: Favour Irish thrillers about vanished husbands and lives built on secrets. Follow Garda investigations, property-developer danger and family safety under threat. Are intrigued by abandoned asylum settings and buried local history. Return for suspense where identity matters as much as disappearance.

by Mary Watson

€16.99

The unputdownable new domestic thriller from the instant Irish Times bestselling author of The Cleaner , about a woman accused of murdering her lover. You never know what happens behind closed doors. Rafe seems like your perfect man – intelligent, charming, attractive. He also happens to be your boss. You’re too swept up to care for office gossip. In Rafe, you have found the one. You go back to his house one evening and falls asleep in his arms. When you wake, you reach out for him. But something feels cold beside you… Rafe is dead – murdered in bed as you lay next to him – and everyone is going to think you did it. Ideal for readers who: Are gripped by domestic thrillers built around obsession, suspicion and a perilous workplace affair. Love to second-guess the narrative and question whether the main character can truly be trusted. Seek relationship-driven suspense crafted by the acclaimed author of The Cleaner. Prefer psychological thrillers that offer a strong opening hook and highly intimate stakes.