Boys of Tommen

by Chloe Walsh

Cork, Ireland. Prestigious rugby school. TikTok phenomenon. Walsh's emotional series: Johnny and Shannon, Joey and Aoife, Gibsie. Set 1999-2007 pre-smartphone era. Raw mental health portrayal. 6+ books. NYT bestseller. Translated worldwide.

Set in Cork, Ireland, and filled with fresh-faced Irish characters, the Boys of Tommen series is based around the lives of Johnny Kavanagh, Shannon Lynch, the lovable Gibsie, and their friends as they navigate their way through their prestigious private school, Tommen College, and prepare for adulthood. The NYT and USA Today bestselling series exploded in popularity on TikTok, Goodreads, and Amazon.

Set during the timeframe of 1999 to 2007 in the fictional town of Ballylaggin, the series is filled with warm nostalgia, and emphasises on life before smart phones and technology, giving readers, young and old, a realistic insight to life as a teenager in the early 00s. The series begins with Shannon Lynch, a painfully shy and traumatized girl switching schools in search of safety and a fresh start. At Tommen College, she crosses paths with Johnny Kavanagh, the golden boy of Irish schools rugby.

The series comprises six published books: Binding 13 and Keeping 13 (Johnny and Shannon's duology), Saving 6 and Redeeming 6 (Joey Lynch's duology), Taming 7 (Gibsie's story), and Releasing 10 (Hughie and Lizzie). Two additional books are confirmed for 2026. Each couple gets multi-book storylines allowing deep character development and emotional resolution.

Walsh focuses heavily on the mental health dynamics of her characters, shining a light on important, real-life topics that are close to her heart. Heavily influenced by her own real life experiences, she pens tearjerking, and often harrowing narratives, giving another perspective to, often, unspoken everyday issues. The series tackles abuse, addiction, PTSD, family dysfunction, and recovery with unflinching honesty and content warnings at the beginning of each book.

It's not just romance - it's recovery, self-worth, and resilience. Readers praise Walsh for creating protective Irish rugby boys who treat their partners with tenderness, slow-burn romances built on friendship first, and found family dynamics that heal generational trauma. The series has been translated into multiple languages and consistently ranks as international bestsellers.

Perfect for readers seeking emotionally raw contemporary romance, Irish settings with authentic voices, sports romance centered on rugby, mental health representation from personal experience, slow-burn relationships where healing comes before happily-ever-after, and stories proving love can help broken people rebuild - though it never magically fixes everything.