Ultimate fiction book gift guide for the literary lover in your life

Christmas is right around the corner and if you have a bookworm in your life, the obvious gift to get them is a book, but it's hard to decide which of the thousands of titles on the shelves would make the perfect present!

We’ve searched high and low for wonderful fiction books in a variety of genres to make this decision so much easier for you. 

Whether you’ve got a romance lover in your life or a thriller fanatic to buy for, these page-turning titles are sure to put a smile on their face on Christmas morning. 

The Wake-Up Call by Beth O’Leary

Published by Quercus, Out now

It’s the busiest time of the year, and Forest Manor Hotel is quite literally falling apart. So when Izzy and Lucas are given the same shift on the hotel’s front desk, they have no choice but to put their differences aside. The hotel won’t stay afloat beyond Christmas without some sort of miracle. But when Izzy returns a guest’s lost wedding ring, the reward convinces management this might be the way to fix everything. With four rings still sitting in lost property, the race is on for Izzy and Lucas to save their beloved hotel – and their jobs. As their bitter rivalry turns into something much more complicated, Izzy and Lucas begin to wonder if there’s more at stake here than the hotel’s future. Can the two of them make it through the season with their hearts intact?

An Invitation to the Kennedys by Emily Hourican

Published by Hachette Books Ireland, Out now

Inspired by true-life events. Kathleen ‘Kick’ Kennedy, recently arrived from Boston, is already a huge hit in 1930s London society. As the daughter of the US ambassador, she is at the centre of the most elite social circles. But when she falls for a duke-in-waiting, she realises there are plenty of people who think she doesn’t belong. Lady Brigid Guinness has no interest in love, marriage or society connections. But her brother- in-law Chips Channon has other ideas – and seems intent on pushing her towards a match with a dull German prince. When Chips invites the Kennedys and a select group of friends and family to Kelvedon Hall, his country estate, Brigid and Kick discover that beneath the brittle facade of politeness, marriages are on the rocks, political intrigue abounds and nothing is really as it seems – all while the war in Europe grows closer by the day. By the time their week in Essex has ended, both Kick and Brigid realise that their world is changing rapidly, and their hopes and plans for the future may have to change too…

Aisling Ever After by Emer McLysaght & Sarah Breen

Published by Gill Books, Out now

Aisling is almost 32, and she’s still a complete Aisling. Christmas lights are twinkling in the Big Apple, and Aisling is stunned to find her ex-boyfriend John on her doorstep. Can his new-found devotion (and his new six-pack!) lure her back home, or should she continue to chase the American dream with the Irish mafia and Jeff, the ridey fireman? Meanwhile, in Ballygobbard, it’s all go. Baby showers are the new hen parties, Mammy and Dr Trevor are more serious than Aisling thought, and the prospect of two evil stepsisters has her doubting her place in the family. Pulled between head, heart and home, Aisling strives to finally create her own happy ever after. 

Tackle by Jilly Cooper

Published by Bantam Press, Out now

Rupert Campbell-Black, undefeated race-horse owner and handsomest man in the world, is in the darkest of places. His adored wife, Taggie, is about to undergo chemotherapy, his beloved horse Love Rat has died, and now his daughter Bianca wants him to buy a languishing local football club – a sport Rupert knows nothing about – so she can return to Rutshire with her football star husband. Rupert's first impressions of Searston Rovers are distinctly unfavourable. But swayed by Bianca and Taggie, soon Rupert has signed the deal. As Searston's new owner, he won't stand for anything less than victory in the Premier League, despite the odds being stacked against him. With help from the club's ravishing and adorable secretary, Tember West, Rupert sets out to mastermind Searston's rise to the top, starting with taking charge of the players – much to the fury of Searston's manager. The rival football club and their corrupt dealings aren't going to make it easy for him either – and they have a history of foul play. Let the sabotage and scandal begin.

A Winter to Remember by Roisin Meaney

Published by Hachette Books Ireland, Out now

Emily loves the festive season. This year she’s hosting a special Christmas lunch at her restaurant to celebrate with family and friends. But as the big day draws near, her plans begin to unravel …Emily and her partner Bill are happily raising his grandson Pip when Bill’s troubled daughter Christine turns up out of the blue. She wants to pick up the pieces of her life, and to reclaim her son. Can Emily give up the boy she’s come to love as her own? And how can she ask Bill to choose between the two women he loves? Emily’s best friend Heather is also dealing with unexpected arrivals: the mother she left behind as a teenager, who now needs her help, and a man she thought she’d never see again. But Heather wonders if these reunions will heal past wounds, or only disrupt the happiness she has now. As Emily and Heather’s lives become more and more complicated, will they find their way back to happiness and the people they love in time for Christmas Day?

The Pit bu Peter Papathanasiou 

Published by MacLehose Press, Out now

Senior Constable Sparrow investigates a cold case in a barren mining region of Western Australia. With DS Manolis on leave, Sparrow receives a call from a man who wants to turn himself in. Bob is 65 years old, confined to a nursing home. But thirty years ago, he killed a man in the remote Kimberley mining region. He offers to show Sparrow where the body is, but there’s a catch: Sparrow must accompany him north, posing as his carer. How far can Bob be trusted? Will Sparrow be risking more than just his career?

The Burnout by Sophie Kinsella

Published by Bantam Press, Out now

Armed with good intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga and find solitude, she heads to the Devon resort she loved as a child. But it’s off-season, the hotel is falling apart and now she has to share the beach with someone else: a grumpy, stressed-out guy called Finn. How can she commune with nature when he’s sitting on a rock, watching her? Especially when they don’t agree on burnout cures. (Sasha: manifesting, wild swimming, secret Mars bars; Finn: drinking whisky.) But when curious messages start appearing on the beach, Sasha and Finn are forced to begin talking – about everything. What’s the mystery? Why are they both burned out? What exactly is ‘manifesting’, anyway? They might discover that they have more in common than they think…

Holly by Stephen King

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, Out now

Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries. When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down. Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harbouring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless. Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmanoeuvre the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.

This Christmas in Paris by Sophie Claire

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, Out now

What could be more magical than Christmas in Paris? When Carys is offered the chance to run a little French café, she leaps at the chance to discover an exciting city where she can dream big. Meanwhile, struggling journalist Mat is living in the City of Love – but he’s never found romance himself. Then, a chance encounter changes everything, and it feels like the start of something wonderful. But Carys and Mat are both keeping secrets… Can they open their hearts to one another – and maybe even find love, just in time for Christmas?

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

Published by Penguin Random House, Out now

In 1960s Maine, six-year-old Joe watches his little sister Ruthie, sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of the blueberry fields, while their family, Mi’kmaq people from Nova Scotia, pick fruit. That afternoon, Ruthie vanishes without a trace. As the last person to see her, Joe will be forever haunted by grief, guilt, and the agony of imagining how his life could have been. In an affluent suburb nearby, Norma is growing up as the only child of unhappy parents. She is smart, precocious, and bursting with questions she isn’t allowed to ask – questions about her missing baby photos; questions about her dark skin; questions about the strange, vivid dreams of campfires and warm embraces that return night after night. Norma senses there are things her parents aren’t telling her, but it will take decades to unravel the secrets they have kept buried since she was a little girl.

This Christmas by Emma Heatherington

Published by Century, Out now

Rose used to love Christmas – until the year everything changed. She hasn't been home to visit her family for the holidays since. Charlie is facing his first Christmas alone. It may be the most wonderful time of the year for some, but not for him. Not this year. In search of comfort and seclusion, Rose escapes to a cottage in rural Donegal to hunker down for the festive season by herself. But when Charlie opens the door to Seaview Cottage, the two strangers realise that their holiday rental has been double-booked. They both expected to spend this Christmas alone. But their lives could be changed forever if they agree to spend it together…

The Secret by Lee Child & Andrew Child

Published by Penguin Random House, Out now

Chicago. 1992. A hospital patient wakes to find two strangers by his bed. They show him a list of names and ask a simple but impossible question. Minutes later he falls to his death from his twelfth-floor window – a fall which generates some unexpected attention from the Secretary of Defense, who calls for an inter-agency task force to investigate. Jack Reacher, recently demoted from Major, is assigned as the Army's representative. If he gets a result, great. If not, he's a convenient fall guy. Reacher may be an exceptional military investigator, but office politics aren't what gets him up in the morning. As he races to identify a cold-blooded killer and uncover a secret that stretches back 23 years, he must navigate around his new partners. Will Reacher bring the bad guys to justice the official way… or his way?

The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman 

Published by Viking, Out now

An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing. As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home. With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?

The Night House by Jo Nesbo

Published by Vintage, Out now

In the wake of his parents’ tragic deaths, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate. He traces the number that Tom prank called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the woods. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices start… When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne. Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story.

I’ll Leave You With This by Kylie Ladd

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, Out now

Three years after the death of their beloved brother, all Daniel's sisters have left of him are their memories. They know he's helped others by donating his organs, but as miracles come true for the recipients, his own family are struggling with their devastating loss. When Clare suggests that they find the people Daniel's death saved, her sisters have their doubts. Will meeting them help to bring the sisters back together, or will old tensions and surfacing secrets splinter the fragile family ties forever?

A Whisper From Oblivion by Declan O’Rourke

Published by Gill Books, Out now

The inhabitants of Macroom and its surroundings are landed squarely into the eye of the storm that is 1847, during Ireland’s Great Famine. After the landslide of their descent through 1846, Pádraig and Cáit Ua Buachalla awaken on the outskirts of Macroom to a new year fraught with the worst of weather, worse luck and a new level of problems that compound their desperate struggle to survive. In the heart of town, in the absence of her husband the pawnbroker, Paulellen Creed struggles to stay afloat. Follow this heart-wrenching story of tragedy and human beauty as, through the voices of Macroom in 1847, we hear a whisper from oblivion.

A Winter in New York by Josie Silver 

Published by Viking, Out now

Iris arrives in the city of dreams, intent on restarting her culinary career, and leaving her recent heartache behind. Wandering the streets at a famous food festival, Iris feels like she's living in a movie. Then she stumbles upon a gelateria that looks strangely familiar. Inside, she meets Gio: a perfect leading man with an irresistible smile – and a crisis of his own. As fate would have it, Iris is the one person with the answer to his problem. She just can't tell him that… So, can Iris finally let go of the past – and let herself fall in love?