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Gráinne O'Hare

@spacedolphin_

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safety lights are for dudes
🍸THIRST TRAP (my novel) is out now ✨️
🎓 dammit Jim I'm a doctor (PhD in 18th-century studies)
🇮🇪 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

GIVEAWAY! I’m partnering with some of the fabulous people at Crown to celebrate the recent release of Thirst Trap in paperback. It’s a heartstring yanking story of the shifting world of adult friendships.
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Prize: a paperback copy of Thirst Trap!
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TO ENTER:
Follow the author @spacedolphin_
Follow the publisher @crownpublishing
and follow me so I can manage entries!

Entries:
One entry for writing “Friends Forever” in the comments.
Additional entry for tagging a friend.
And an additional, third entry opportunity for sharing on your stories.
Happy reading!
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QOTD: What are your favorite stories that include a friendship trio?
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#thirsttrapbook #bookstagram #instabooks #instareads #reading

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‘Do you think we’re good for each other?’ ‘We’re best friends. Aren’t we?’ ‘The two things aren’t mutually exclusive.’

Funny, unhinged, and surprisingly tender, Thirst Trap turned out to be a great pick for Irish Book Week 🇮🇪 Gráinne O’Hare’s debut is an intimate, bittersweet, and compulsively readable study of friendship, the messiness of grief, and the pain of letting go.

We meet three housemates in Belfast - Harley, Maggie, and Róise - all struggling to move on a year after losing their friend, Lydia, in a tragic accident. With an unresolved fallout hanging over them, the trio spirals through wild nights and guilt-fuelled recklessness, while their physically deteriorating house mirrors the unravelling of their lives.

While this isn’t my typical book - it’s louder and more explicit than the quieter, understated novels I tend to go for - it completely won me over. It made me laugh, immersed me in the characters' worlds, and felt refreshingly candid. There’s no sugar-coating here; grief isn’t neat or poetic - it's chaotic, angry, and darkly funny. However, beneath the humour there’s real heart, and the anger never cancels out the love.

I'm often drawn to stories centred on female friendship, especially ones that show how fierce and fragile those bonds can be. Each character felt distinctive, yet similar enough that you see why they clicked so well. The witty back-and-forth, the use of humour to cope, and the pain of betrayal - all rang so true. As did the urge to block out painful memories, to numb their grief, and give advice they struggled to follow themselves.

Some books are there to teach you, others to reach you. While I usually lean towards the former, not every book needs to be an education; some are there for the feels, for the relatability, for the honesty. Thirst Trap reflects the raw, human fallibilities we all share, try as we might to maintain a veneer of having it all together. A reminder that, sometimes, we need to break apart in order to come together again.

A firecracker of a debut, and I look forward to reading whatever Gráinne O’Hare writes next.

Do you have a favourite book about female friendships, or a favourite Irish author?

⭐⭐⭐⭐

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🇮🇪☘️ Irish Book Week ☘️🇮🇪

A big thank you to @catherinesbookgarden for making me aware of this special week celebrating Irish authors, publishers, illustrators, books and bookshops!

Ireland holds a special place in my heart. Not only am I half Irish, I was actually born on St Patrick’s Day too! ☘️ It’s my favourite place in the world to visit, particularly the west coast, where my family is from. I love the people, the music, the nature and the beautiful landscapes, and feel so at peace and so myself when I’m there. 💚

Living on the Irish coast one day is a goal of mine, which is why I’m excited to finally be in the process of applying for my Irish passport!

To celebrate Irish Book Week, I’m sharing some books by Irish authors that I’ve read and loved, and some that are on my TBR. ➡️

Sláinte to all the Irish authors out there! 🍻

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20 of my must-read Irish books 🇮🇪

You all know how much I adore an Irish writer, and to celebrate Irish book week, here are 20 must reads, in my opinion. I’ve tried to include a few lesser known books here and I hope you can find one that you haven’t read!

Please do drop me some recs below as I love reading Irish writers that I’ve never read before. I have a few on my TBR and I might do a separate post for that this week too if I can find them all…

Let me know what your fav Irish books are and if we share faves!

(Includes some gifted books, publishers tagged!)

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TGI #Fridayreads! Delightful grim reaper romance and a bittersweet Irish romp about friendship and transition 🖤💀💗🚬 #indiebooksellers #tbrpile

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Didn’t realize I was going to spend a week in Ireland with my audiobooks but I’m not complaining! Two completely different vibes but Thirst Trap and How to Write a Love Story have been a great escape.

I was so excited when I got the ARC for Scorpion Deep and finally dove in this week and haven’t been able to put it down! I’m loving the writing and how it feels like stepping into this dark and eerie world. Perfect way to start off October!

#readwithme #bookworm #booklover #bookrecommendations #bookaesthetic

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It’s the first Tuesday of the month y’all, and you know what that means — fresh stacks of new releases 🎉📚🎉📚

📚 Shop these beauties online or in-store this week!

#newreleasetuesday #newbooks #newbookreleases #allshewrotebooks

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PUB DAY! 📣 What’re you picking up this week?😍

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Food for thought.

#aardvarkbookclub #booksforfoodies #youarewhatyoueat

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Llegaron libritos nuevos✨. #unboxing #librosen60seg #bookhaul #novedad #booktok

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Friday night is poetry night!

This evening I had the pleasure of helping the @poetrybooksociety cover the festival bookstall for day one of this year’s @newcastlepoetryfestival, held @stmarysbythetyne.

This year’s festival takes the theme Re-inventing North, bringing together poets for two days of readings, workshops and conversations. And there was plenty packed into day one, with @dharkerimtiaz, @daljit.nagra1234, Sean O’Brien, Karen Solie, @spacedolphin_, @johndchallis and @munozpoems all appearing across the programme, alongside new voices at the festival open mic.

I was lucky enough to sit in on the final two events of the evening, beginning with the return of The Poetry Virgins: Charlie Hardwick, Kay Hepplewhite, Fiona MacPherson and Ellen Phethean.

Then it was time to close day one with the PBS Showcase and readings from Martina Evans and @jackiekaypoet. Martina read from her latest collection, Drunken Driving, a PBS Choice for Summer 2026, before Jackie shared work ahead of the publication of her new Selected Poems this month, a PBS Special Commendation for Winter. A pretty special way to round off the day.

Books sold, plenty of poetry heard, and lots more still to come.

Back tomorrow for day two. Maybe see you there!

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New Books 📚💛

📕Hundeheimat @donpablomulemba
📕Queenie is working - Candice Carty-Williams
📕Unerwünschte Töchter @miriamcarbe
📕Please come and get me @brianfrancisfrank
📕Honey @_imani_thompson_
📕Weird Girls @spacedolphin_

Ab jetzt bei uns im Shop erhältlich 📚💛

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