CONTEMPORARY   | Daily Mail Online

Love & Other Scams by P. J. Ellis (HarperNorth £14.99, 320pp)

Love & Other Scams

by P. J. Ellis (HarperNorth £14.99, 320pp)

Cat is already broke when her freelance design contract is cancelled. The couple she lives with are selling and have asked her to move, and Louisa, her super-wealthy best friend from university, has just asked Cat to be her bridesmaid.

Feeling under siege in all areas, Cat heads to a hotel bar to pick some pockets and recoup some cash. She soon realises that bartender Jake is on to her — but only because he’s using the place for his own conman tricks.

With so many interests in common, it’s not long before our two criminals start making plans to perform a grand heist. It’s also not long before their pretend relationship starts to look an awful lot like a real one. It might seem counterintuitive to root for a pair of thieves, but these characters are beautifully drawn and their backstories demanded my empathy. A brilliant concept and great fun.

The Sleep Watcher by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan (Sceptre £16.99, 256pp)

The Sleep Watcher

by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan (Sceptre £16.99, 256pp)

Kit is 16 years old and having out-of-body experiences. At night, her spirit seems to leave her sleeping form unnoticed, allowing her to walk and spy, coming across neighbours having sex or a random local woman applying eczema cream in the privacy of her bathroom.

Early on, Kit isn’t sure if she’s dreaming, or pretending to be dreaming, or having some sort of mental breakdown — she has no idea what’s happening.

Either way, whatever this weird phenomenon is and whatever it means, there’s no getting away from the fact that the invisibility is giving her a ringside seat at the breakdown of her parents’ relationship and many other things she would ordinarily have no idea about.

This shock leap into all sorts of adult worlds is confusing and too much for her. It’s beautifully written and compelling.

Hotel 21 by Senta Rich (Bloomsbury £14.99, 288pp)

Hotel 21

by Senta Rich (Bloomsbury £14.99, 288pp)

Hotel cleaner Noelle presents a friendly, efficient front to her co-workers, but it’s all an act.

Our protagonist moves from hotel to hotel, intent on stealing personal tokens from every place before quickly moving on. She never takes anything of value, just inconsequential items such as a hairclip, an old lipstick or a single slipper.

As the narrative progresses, via shifts from the present day to childhood memories of growing up with an abusive mother and recollections of time spent working at previous hotels, the reasons behind Noelle’s kleptomania become clear. Now working at her 21st hotel, Noelle’s chief ambition is to last longer than a month.

However, things get complicated when she becomes emotionally invested with her colleagues for the first time. The women in her team soon feel like members of the family Noelle never had and the walls she has built around herself start to crumble. Wonderful.