Books of the Month

Sometimes the key is letting go…

It seems like everyone is breaking up. Everyone, that is, except Melody. She’s already decided love just isn't for her. Then all the lovers’ padlocks are removed from a beautiful Dublin bridge, and people start splitting up. Melody is intrigued enough to investigate for her podcast.

And when she – quite literally – collides with the man responsible, sparks fly. Die-hard romantic Al has not only sworn off love after a messy break-up. He’s also convinced the love locks had to go. Can the two of them get to the bottom of the mystery? And, in the middle of solving everyone else’s heartbreak, could they unlock their own?

'So much fun and very romantic. I loved it' Marian Keyes

'A charming, feel-good romance … Melody and Al's journey left me smiling long after I turned the final page' Louise O'Neill'

A delight from start to finish' Sheila O'Flanagan

'Unputdownable … the absolute spinning feeling of Al and Melody falling in love is spectacular' Cathy Kelly

READERS ADORE LOVE UNLOCKED:

'A perfect summer read''Absolutely charming and I loved every minute'

'I was captivated by this book''Another fantastic read from Cecelia Ahern'

'Truly wonderful … Filled with love, heartbreak, whimsy, and a sprinkle of Cecilia Ahern's usual magic'

'I literally finished it in one day because I could not put it down'

You'll love this book if you:

• Enjoy warm-hearted contemporary romance.
• Love Irish fiction with recognisable settings and familiar-feeling characters.
• Liked previous books by Cecelia Ahern such as PS I Love You.
• Are a fan of similar authors including Marian Keyes or Jojo Moyes

The new novel from #1 international bestseller Liane Moriarty, and the sequel to the worldwide phenomenon and inspiration for the award-winning TV series, Big Little Lies...

What's worse than a big little lie? An even bigger little truth...

It has been a decade since the ill-fated quiz night at Pirriwee High. A man died. Accusations of murder were rife. For mothers and best friends Madeline, Celeste and Jane, the fall out still feels like it happened yesterday. Never mind that their kids have grown into grouchy teenagers with too many hormones. Or that, as their frazzled mothers, they don't have enough. Because life always has its challenges, big and small.

So here's Madeline - carefully planning her 50th birthday party, little realising she's about to be upstaged. And Jane - so busy congratulating herself on her happy marriage to Tom, she hasn't noticed it's not. While Celeste, haunted by memories of her dead husband, fears what her very alive mother-in-law will do next.

When the school receives an anonymous package containing a severed human finger, following reports of a creepy man lurking around students, (un-severed) fingers get pointed. Is this mischief, incrimination or even murder? A lie masquerading as the truth? Or a secret just waiting to come out? What is clear is that the stakes keep getting higher, and that the truth will always hurt someone...

Ideal for readers who:

• Welcome a return to Madeline, Celeste and Jane years after Big Little Lies.
• Track domestic drama where friendship, parenting and old secrets keep colliding.
• Seek sharp, funny ensemble stories with unease simmering beneath everyday life.
• Prefer sequels that revisit past consequences rather than simply repeating them.

Julius Caesar is dead, and the lives of two teenaged boys are about to be changed forever.

One is Caesar’s 17-year-old nephew, Octavius, whom he has made his heir. The other is Octavius’s closest friend, Agrippa. To claim Octavius’s inheritance, they must fight the giant figures of the Roman Empire – and, against all odds, they win. Octavius becomes the Emperor Augustus. For twenty years, they rule the world together.

Now Agrippa is fifty. Ailing and alone, betrayed by his wife’s infidelity, he takes refuge in his house on the Bay of Naples and begins to write his memoirs. Yet to stir up the past can be dangerous. From his earliest meetings with Julius Caesar, through the epic conflict with Mark Antony and Cleopatra, the great naval battle of Actium and the endless wars to expand the empire, he describes how one man has dominated his life: the cunning, ruthless, unknowable Octavius.

When it comes to power, does friendship exist at all?

Ideal for readers who:

• Are drawn to Roman historical fiction shaped by strategy, loyalty and ambition.
• Follow Agrippa’s life beside Augustus through memory, power and sacrifice.
• Prefer political stories where friendship becomes as dangerous as rivalry.
• Appreciate novels that make ancient history feel immediate and human.

Set in January 1965, A House in Winter tells the story of the visit of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden to his sister's home in Abbeyleix, Ireland, when they faced local opposition and IRA petrol bomb attacks that confined them, without electricity, for 48 fraught hours.

As well as the conflict outside the walls, there's plenty within, with Margaret's difficult mother in law gleefully contributing to her disintegrating marriage. Meanwhile in the nearby village local woman Cait has struggles of her own, unable to escape family responsibilities and small town life. Both Margaret and Cait are trapped by their circumstances in this gripping novel.

A House in Winter is an atmospheric and richly observed novel about duty, marriage and the different forms of captivity. Blending royal intrigue with compelling Irish community drama, it will appeal to readers of The Crown, Wendy Holden's The Duchess, Daisy Goodwin's Victoria and the warm, character-driven storytelling of Maeve Binchy.

Praise for A House in Winter:

'This a beautifully crafted and poignant book' - Alison Weir 

 'Resonant and compelling, it brings its complex subjects vividly to life. I loved it' - SJ Bennett

'Glittering, gripping and sharply observed, A House In Winter is a riveting page-turner. I devoured it!' - Evie Woods

 'Atmospheric, evocative and beautifully told' - Louise O'Neill

You'll love this book if you:

• Enjoy fact-based historical fiction with an Irish setting
• Are an avid watcher of The Crown or follower of royal scandals
• Like warm, character-based stories and authors like Maeve Binchy or Marian Keyes 

The bridge connecting the two valleys was almost built.

Miquel and his father are living an uneasy life together in his mother's house in the Pyrenees, the house she had been left to inherit on the day she died. A new bridge, connecting the two valleys, is almost complete, which will end the valley's isolation and create an easier route to smuggle contraband deep into the mountains. Where Miquel's father imagines opportunity, Miquel foresees disaster and an exposure to the outside world for which his father is desperately unprepared.

Colm Tóibín's exhilarating short novel contains vast inner and outer worlds within its pages. With meticulous precision and an unerring eye Tóibín captures lives caught between the past and the present, and the journey of a young man seeking connection, haunted by loss.

‘I knew as I made my way home that there was no home. All the old things … were gone forever.’

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR,  TWICE WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR

An immersive and unforgettable novel about one man's life in the aftermath of the American Civil War.

Against this rapidly shifting landscape, Tennyson Bouguereau - freed man, devoted brother, nascent singer, conflicted soldier and wanted man - journeys to find meaning and belonging. From the relative safety of home in Tennessee with his sister Rosalee, he is offered the possibility of a whole new life in Nashville, until a surprising trip to Victorian England changes everything.

Exquisitely rendered, and with a rich cast of characters, The Newer World is a lyrical, visceral novel about what it is to survive, and what might be lost along the way.

You'll love this book if you:

• Like Irish fiction and/or historical fiction
• Enjoyed earlier Sebastian Barry books, particularly A Thousand Moons and Days Without End.
• Love authors like Maggie O'Farrell, Colm Toibin and Hilary Mantel.

Praise for Sebastian Barry's The Newer World:

There’s a beautiful looseness to the novel, almost a wildness, the mark of a true, natural storyteller. It’s easily among his best works. KEVIN BARRY

The Newer World is that rare entity: a novel that rises to meet its political moment. CLAIRE KILROY   

Barry records a life between worlds, in tender, elegiac prose. This is the novelist at his best: a masterly work of historical witness and moral reckoning. OBSERVER

A novel you settle into with a feeling of deep satisfaction, knowing you're in the company of a master. BENJAMIN WOOD