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POPULAR
SPEAK TO ME
by Paula Cocozza
(Tinder Press £18.99, 272pp)
Being a Wendy myself, I tried not to mind that the intrusive smartphone in this novel has my name.
The heroine, Susan, is married to Kurt, who spends every available second on his mobile device. Susan calls it Wendy, and Wendy is ruining their relationship.
Their recent move to a bland newbuild hasn’t helped either, in the course of which Susan finds she’s lost some letters from a teenage lover.
A search ensues, which leads to the lover in person. Is this a good idea? A witty and thoughtful cri de coeur for a more innocent and genuinely communicative age.
TALKING AT NIGHT
Michael Joseph £14.99, 400pp)
Will and Rosie are social opposites. He’s a bad lad from a rackety background, and she’s helicoptered and Oxford-bound.
An encounter at a teenage bonfire sets a slow fuse burning, before tragedy nips romance in the bud.
Slightly self-obsessed Rosie goes to uni, marries a kindly rower and tries to live her best life, while long-suffering Will watches from a lonely distance. But the fuse burns on. Will they ever get together (as it were)?
Michael Joseph 16.99, 304pp)
Great middle-class lifestyle detail is the star ingredient in this passionate, page-turning debut from Daverley.
THE COUPLES
Michael Joseph 16.99, 304pp)
I loved this Dublin-set love tangle about three sparkly young couples.
Lizzie and Frank, Beatrice and Conor, and Eva and Shay are all best friends until a game at a birthday bash gives reckless Frank ideas about ice-queen Beatrice. A steamy, dramatic affair begins, exposed in spectacular style by the least likely person.
Sympathetic to the strains and temptations of modern marriage, this story also reveals the destructive consequences of selfishness.