SUMMER SCORCHERS
New swimsuit? Tick. Sunglasses? Tick. Brilliant books? Look no further than our guide to the hottest literature in stores now! More’s critics and guests have got your holiday reading covered – so it’s not just blondes who will be having more fun on the be
CRIMES OF PASSION
I Found You, by Lisa Jewell (Century, €16.99) Twin mysteries drive this gripping tale of love and lies. In Yorkshire, an artsy single mother finds a man with no memory on the beach and takes him in. Meanwhile, in Surrey, a young Latvian girl is trying to make sense of her husband’s disappearance. When the police begin digging, they discover that the man he claimed to be never really existed – even his passport was a fake.
SIZZLING AUSTEN REWRITE
Eligible, by Curtis Sittenfeld (The Borough Press, €17.99) Suburban Cincinnati is the setting for a modern-day retelling of Pride And
Prejudice. Catapulting Jane Austen’s classic into the 21st Century, it recasts Lizzy Bennet as a women’s magazine writer and Mr Darcy as a brain surgeon. As for Charles ‘Chip’ Bingley, he’s a reality TV star. Sizzling sexual tensions make for the perfect poolside indulgence.
HEARTWARMING ROM-COM
The Night That Changed Everything, by Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice (Corgi, €9.25) Rebecca and Ben complement each other perfectly: he picks up her mess, she keeps him on his toes. As a couple, they’re invincible. Until, that is, a secret from the past rears its head. Funny and warm, the book’s alternating his-and-hers chapters will keep you guessing about the fate of their relationship until the end.
COMFORTING TALE IN STORE
How To Find Love In A Bookshop, by Veronica Henry (Orion, €16.99) Picture-postcard setting? Big-hearted heroine with a struggle on her hands? Mysterious romantic interest? This cosy tale of embattled bookshop-owner Emilia has it all. Nightingale Books, the store her father opened, provides the Cotswold town of Peasebrook with plenty. What it isn’t is profitable, but as Emilia fights to save her shop, she learns just how important it is to the local community.
FOR DOWNTON DIEHARDS
Belgravia, by Julian Fellowes (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, €24.99) Originally released via an app, the new novel from Downton Abbey creator Fellowes will whisk you off to Victorian London and a legendary ball thrown by the Duchess of Richmond on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo. Expect memorable characters, highsociety drama and a secret that can’t be kept hidden for much longer.
TIME-TRAVELLING ADVENTURE
Sleeper’s Castle, by Barbara Erskine (Harper Collins, €19.50) Separated by more than 600 years, Catrin and Miranda are brought together when Miranda, grieving over her lost lover, leaves London to house-sit on the Welsh borders. There she dreams of Catrin, who centuries earlier found herself caught up in Owain Glyndwr’s revolt against English rule. But can Miranda help her?
FUTURISTIC CHILLER
The City Of Mirrors, by Justin Cronin (Orion, €18.99) The trilogy that began with The Passage reaches its compulsive conclusion. This novel opens in the year 98 AV (that’s ‘after virus’) – and Zero, the original carrier of the disease that brought darkness upon the world, is alive and preparing for one final battle.
FIGHT FOR FREEDOM
The Rising, by Bairbre Toibin (Hachette Books Ireland, €11.99) If you’re looking for a book to fill you with Irish pride, this one is for you. It’s a Romeo and Juliet romance: Margaret is the daughter of a merchant; Michael is a tenant farmer. Her family doesn’t approve, but they don’t let that stop them falling in love. The book is set in the period leading up to the 1916 Rising – and Margaret and Michael’s fight to be together soon turns into their fight for freedom. Impeccably researched, and the dialogue and prose are so clear, it’s almost like you’re eavesdropping on a conversation.
HAIR-RAISING HEIST THRILLER
The Emperor’s Revenge, by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison (Michael Joseph, €24.99) This latest Oregon Files adventure finds Juan Cabrillo and his crew on the trail of bank robbers who’ve pulled off a violent heist during the Monaco Grand Prix. The robbery turns out to be the first step in a plot which has its roots in a document stolen during Napoleon’s doomed invasion of Russia 200 years earlier.
TRAGIC HISTORY
The Judge’s Wife, by Ann O’Loughlin (Black and White Publishing, €10.99) In her gripping second novel, O’Loughlin explores the harsh way women in 1950s Ireland were treated if they stepped across the moral line – and the effect this had on later generations. She tells the story of Grace Moran and Vikram Fernandes, a couple whose bond endures in the face of cruelty, lies – and even imprisonment in an asylum.
A MOTHER’S LOVE
The Perfect Gift, by Emma Hannigan (Hachette Books Ireland, €19) Hannigan’s tenth novel tells the story of Roísín, who was raised by adoptive parents and has never communicated with her birth mother, aside from a birthday card every year. When she turns 30 and gets something more than a card, she starts to wonder about the mystery around her adoption. This is a compelling story of family and the secrets that both keep them together and threaten to tear them apart.
APOCALYPTIC FANTASY
The Fireman, by Joe Hill (Gollancz, €18.99) Another pandemic threatens civilisation in Hill’s latest. Dragonscale leaves black and gold markings on the bodies of its hosts before causing them to burst into flames. A nurse finds she is infected, but wants to survive long enough to give birth to the baby she’s carrying – so she teams up with a mysterious stranger wearing a dirty firefighter’s jacket.
DREAMY AMERICAN PARABLE
Falling, by Jane Green (Macmillan, €19.50) After five years of fast-paced life as an Englishwoman in New York, finance expert Emma Montague decides to chase her dream of becoming an interior designer. Can she dodge amorous distraction in the form of her flirty landlord Dominic? A feel-good fable about finding love and home where you least expect it.