Asking for It by Louise O’Neill 

The second work of Young Adult Fiction from Louise O’Neill, Asking For It is an uncomfortable but important read that shines a light on rape culture and victim blaming. It would have been an easier read if O’Neill had written it about a smart, sweet girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is not. It is about Emma O’Donovan, a nasty, shallow girl from a small Irish town who has in the past encouraged a friend not to bring rape charges to those who violated her. She is a girl who loves male attention, who is a bully and who lies and cheats. She is a girl who goes to a party, who dresses provocatively, who drinks too much and who takes drugs. And she is a girl who wakes up on her front porch the next day in extreme pain, stinging with severe sunburn, peppered with bruises and sticky with vomit. She been clearly abused, and there are photographs of it all over the Internet. But as social media shares her shame, Emma blames only herself – it’s not just society that thinks she was asking for it, she does too. This is a fearless novel about sexual consent, and its discomfort is in part due to the fact that the reader will, even if fleetingly, some point wonder whether Emma was indeed at fault.

One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

One single mum

With two jobs and two children, Jess Thomas does her best day after day. But it’s hard on your own. And sometimes you take risks you shouldn’t. Because you have to . . .

One chaotic family

Jess’s gifted, quirky daughter Tanzie is brilliant with numbers, but without a helping hand she’ll never get the chance to shine. And Nicky, Jess’s teenage stepson, can’t fight the bullies alone. Sometimes Jess feels like they’re sinking . . .

One handsome stranger

Into their lives comes Ed Nicholls, a man whose life is in chaos, and who is running from a deeply uncertain future. But he has time on his hands. He knows what it’s like to be lonely. And he wants to help . . .

One unexpected love story

The One Plus One is a captivating and unconventional romance about two lost souls meeting in the most unlikely circumstances.

Twist Me by Anna Zaires 

Kidnapped. Taken to a private island.

I never thought this could happen to me. I never imagined one chance meeting on the eve of my eighteenth birthday could change my life so completely.

Now I belong to him. To Julian. To a man who is as ruthless as he is beautiful—a man whose touch makes me burn. A man whose tenderness I find more devastating than his cruelty.

My captor is an enigma. I don’t know who he is or why he took me. There is a darkness inside him—a darkness that scares me even as it draws me in.

My name is Nora Leston, and this is my story.

Nocturnal Animals by Austin Wright

Many years after their divorce, Susan Morrow receives a strange gift from her ex-husband. A manuscript that tells the story of a terrible crime: an ambush on the highway, a secluded cabin in the woods; a thrilling chiller of death and corruption. How could such a harrowing story be told by the man she once loved? And why, after so long, has he sent her such a disturbing and personal message…?