8 New Books To Add To Your To-Read List This January

Have you read more books as one of your New Year’s resolutions?

Worry not, because we have eight fabulous books for you to read this month to get you well on your way.

And you won’t be able to put them down!

Brigid – Kim Curran

In a wild, ancient grove at the edge of winter, a desperate girl prays to the gods for her freedom. None have ever listened to Brigid’s prayers.

But this time, a goddess answers . . . with a vision that will transform Brigid’s path forever. The new Christian god is coming, a faith that Brigid can bend to her will, building a sanctuary for other powerless women.

But power, like a flame, consumes as it grows. As Brigid rises, challenging kings, defying bishops, her enemies draw closer. What – or who – will she sacrifice to hold on to her legacy?

Out January 29th

Esther is Now Following You – Tanya Sweeney

Esther first sees Ted walking in a park in London. They lock eyes and for a fraction of a second, she feels something she’s never felt before.

She starts by reading up about his life in Canada and his work as an actor. Then she watches every interview with him online. It isn’t long before she’s joined Ted’s fan site online where her and the ‘Tedettes’ stalk his every move.

When Ted gets a new celebrity girlfriend, Esther decides that things have gone far enough. She leaves her husband, takes all their savings, and buys a one-way ticket to Canada.

After all, Ted might not know it yet, but they are meant to be together – he just needs a little bit of persuading.

Out January 29th

Nothing Good Happens After 2AM – Niamh Hargan

Behind the unmarked door of Love and Death, a tiny speakeasy in East London, Robbie Saunders and El Tippett are cocktail-making stars on the rise.

Locked in a volatile dance of rivalry and chemistry, they can’t decide how they feel about each other. And as the city transforms itself, and the bar’s legend grows; it all begins to unravel.

Yet something indefinable keeps drawing Robbie and El back together. Over the years that follow, one unexpected, ill-advised, and utterly glorious late night after another, can they put aside professional betrayals to build something brand new?

Out January 29th

Half His Age – Jennette McCurdy

Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Forceful. Hurting. Perceptive. Endlessly wanting.

And the thing she wants most of all: Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher with the wife and the kid and the mortgage and the bills, with the dead dreams and the atrophied looks and the growing paunch. She doesn’t know why she wants him. Is it his passion? His life experience? The fact that he knows books and films and things that she doesn’t?

Or is it purer than that, rooted in their unlikely connection, their kindred spirits, the similar filter with which they each take in the world around them? Or, perhaps, it’s just enough that he sees her when no one else does.

Out January 20th

Workhorse – Caroline Palmer

Editorial Assistant Clodagh “Clo” Harmon wants nothing more than to rise through the ranks at the world’s most prestigious fashion magazine. But there’s just one problem: she doesn’t have the right pedigree. Clo is a ‘workhorse’ in a world of beautiful, wealthy, impossibly well-connected ‘show horses’ and it seems that her fortunes will never change.

That is until Clo meets Harry Wood, a reporter with visions of his own media empire and the person who might be Clo’s ally in gaming the system…or is he the only thing standing between Clo and her rightful place at the top?

Clo begins to wade across boundaries, taking ever greater and more dangerous risks to become the Important Person she wants to be. But who is Clo under all the borrowed designer clothes and studied manners? And who are we if we share her desires?

Out January 15th

Sister Wake – Dave Rudden

A proud culture oppressed for centuries. An island over-run by bestial gods. And a girl with the power to raise the fallen . . . For three hundred years, the wild island of Croí has been subject to the Empire of the Answering.

Clans have been subjugated, their language outlawed, their religion reduced to the whisper of fugitive priests. Until Croí’s prayers are answered. The Gods return. Feral and majestic, they stride the land as colossi, throwing the Empire into chaos.

The dispossessed and the vengeful struggle for power. A ruthless priestess rallies the faithful, offering a simple choice – believe, or die – even as the empire’s Queen makes the first moves in a long and dangerous game.

But for all their machinations, one woman will decide the fate of them all . . . Sister Wake, unwilling saint of the Goddess of Death.

Out January 15th

The Nowhere Girls – Carmel Harrington

On a cold afternoon in December 1995, two small girls are found abandoned on a platform at Pearse Station in Dublin, Ireland.

Twenty-five years later, investigative journalist Vega is determined to find out what happened to the so-called “Nowhere Girls.” Where did their mother go? Why did no one come forward to claim them? And where are they now?

Little does Vega know that her investigation will reveal much more than she bargained for…

Out January 29th

Chosen Family – Madeleine Gray

At the age of twelve, Nell has accepted that hers will likely be a friendless existence. She’s not interested in boys or makeup or competing to see who can eat the least – so fitting in at her all-girls’ school feels impossible. But then, a new girl arrives at school.

Eve has short hair like a boy’s, a wicked sense of humour and an unshakable confidence that she will find her place in the world. And the moment they meet, Nell begins to rethink the whole friendless existence thing. As they grow into themselves, Nell and Eve will love each other and hurt each other – through the chlorine-scented savagery of adolescence; long, drunken nights in share houses and gay bars; the highs and lows of parenthood.

And always, despite unspoken feelings and sexual confusion, they will choose each other. Again, and again. As friends, as lovers, as family.

Out January 29th