THE REST OF OUR LIVES Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025

East of Eden by John Steinbeck is a sweeping novel that intertwines the lives of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, over multiple generations in California's Salinas Valley. The story explores complex themes of good and evil, free will, and the s

Tyrannical Nurse Ratched rules her ward in an Oregon State mental hospital with a strict and unbending routine, unopposed by her patients, who remain cowed by mind-numbing medication and the threat of electroshock therapy. But her regime is disrupted by t

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle – and her followers are sick with envy. Her charming farmhouse on her working ranch is artfully cluttered, her husband is a handsome cowboy, her homemade sourdough boules are each more beautiful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers and industrial-grade ovens behind the scenes? What her followers don’t know won’t hurt them.

Elle has the chance of a lifetime to write a movie set in New York City. The only problem? Her recent writer's block.

When Elle returns to NYC, she finds her new neighbour to be none other than handsome tech billionaire Parker Warren. The same guy she had a disastrous hook up with two years ago. When seeing him again leads to a night of hate-fuelled writing, Elle realises he might just be her twisted muse.

Parker needs a fake relationship to help secure a business deal. Elle needs to test date spots for her screenplay. So, they make a deal.

When your life flashes before your eyes, what will matter most?

For Wilbur it was his time with Maggie, the love of his life. Their honeymoon in Venice. Before he threw it all away.

Years later, on the brink of his own death, a train arrives. It can take Wilbur back in time. To relive his most important moments. Soon he realises just how much he would have changed.

Dark and steamy motorcycle club romance Jakob Larson is going to be the death of me.

That's what I think every time he strides into my bar. The Kings of Kearny run this small Texas town, and Jakob is their chief enforcer. The Viking, they call him. He's a criminal. As dangerous as he is sexy. The kind of man who makes my inner cavewoman sit up and take notice.

I'm ready to indulge her desires, but just for one night.

Unfortunately, Jakob has other plans. Someone in town is breaking one of the cardinal rules set by the leader of The Kings, and Jakob thinks they're using my grandmother's nursing home to do it. Now I'm neck-deep in trouble with him, and every time I think I've figured out what's really going on, Jakob reveals another piece of the puzzle.

Professional bull rider Emmett Bush is not looking for love - he's looking for a paycheck to save his family's farm from bankruptcy. So, when he agrees to be the leading man on a hot new reality dating show, Romance Ranch, he's already decided it's all one big performance.

Until Julia Silva walks onto his property. Smart, snarky, beautiful, and off-limits in more ways than one. As the location consultant on set and the little sister of his most bitter professional rival, Theo, she's the last woman who should pique his interest.

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.

The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home?

Welcome to Tenderness!

A quaint seaside town in Kitakyushu, Mojiko is full of hidden delights. And one unexpected treasure is the 24/7 convenience store, Tenderness.

At first glance, it's a store like any other.

Sure, it's a bit odd that the handsome manager has his own fan club. And perhaps the customers are somewhat eccentric. But there's a warmth about Tenderness that draws you in.

The fifth book in a dark mafia romance series

Beautiful but bruised, Lyla sells her body each night to survive a sinister underworld that threatens to destroy her.

But someone is watching her. The Shadow Man – Lyla’s stalker and saviour – who targets any man that tries to possess her.

So when Lyla is dragged even further into the unrelenting clutches of those intent on claiming her, her tormented guardian angel is just behind.

The fourth book in a dark mafia romance series

Raised on the streets, Alessandro ‘Alpha’ Villanova has had to scrap his way to the top. A city that once shunned him is now the one he rules as the king of a dark empire.

Far from Alpha’s world, Zephyr de la Vega has led a normal life. Normal family, normal drama. But when a chance encounter puts her on Alpha’s past, she makes him a proposition that changes everything.

A motocross racer who can’t stop whispering in her ear.
A criminal from across the tracks who can’t stop looking.

Old ghosts.
And old enemie
She doesn't want a babysitter anymore, and if she ever finds out why I left town, she'll know why I'm not the best role model.