The Anniversary

by Stephanie Bishop

(W&N £16.99, 432 pp)

Novelist J.B. Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, former university professor, Patrick, to mark their anniversary.

When they met, J.B. was Patrick’s enthralled student. Things are now very different — he is a director of cult films whose success is fading while J.B.’s star is on the rise — but to an outsider looking in, everything between them appears golden.

When a storm hits and Patrick falls overboard, hidden truths behind their power dynamic begin to emerge.

The sense of foreboding increases as the narrative progresses and I found it impossible to put down.

It’s excellent on how a partner’s resentment can grow until it explodes as if from nowhere. It’s also wonderful on writing itself and how our protagonists both enable and block each other’s process. I adored it.

Spilt Milk

by Amy Beashel

(HarperNorth £14.99, 320 pp)

Bea loves her toddler daughter Mabel, but doesn’t enjoy motherhood and feels like she’s lost sight of herself since she gave birth. She misses the passionate relationship she used to enjoy with her husband, Craig, the ambition she always felt about her writing career, and her freedom.

So when Bea becomes pregnant again, she can only think about how much worse her life would be with two babies.

She books a termination and gets blackout-drunk the night before, not telling Craig about any of it.

While drinking, she wrote a blog post about how she regrets having her first child and won’t have a second.

The day after her appointment, Bea’s world implodes when the brutal words she can’t recall writing — the worst things a mother can say — are accidentally posted on the internet.

The blog goes viral and Craig, along with millions of others, is horrified. It’s different, raw, thought-provoking and beautifully written. Fantastic.

If I Let You Go

by Charlotte Levin

(Mantle £14.99, 384 pp)

Janet Brown spends her mornings cleaning offices. She scrubs out stains in the way she cannot scrub out the grief, guilt and devastating sadness she has been drowning in since her daughter died 11 years ago.

Janet’s husband Colin is emotionally abusive and controls everything she does. He blames her for the death of their child and tells her she’s lucky to have him, as no one else would put up with her.

When Janet breaks out for a night with her friends, she wakes up in hospital having survived a train crash and saved the life of a child. Everyone is calling her a hero, but she can’t remember any of it.

Soon, Janet is being interviewed on TV and admired in newspaper articles, but as her memory returns, she realises something is badly wrong.

This emotional rollercoaster is alternately heart-breaking and hopeful. I was gripped.

The Happy Couple

by Naoise Dolan (W&N £16.99, 288pp)

Author of the best-seller Exciting Times, Dolan’s latest is a deep dive into love, betrayal, monogamy and sexuality. 

Set over the course of a year leading up to a wedding, it charts the lives of the bride and groom, best man, bridesmaid and a guest as their lives intersect in the run up to the big day.

It quickly becomes apparent that the happy couple, Celine and Luke, are not as delighted with each other as one might hope for two people about to make such a commitment.

Celine’s one true love is her piano and Luke is a serial cheater. Best man Archie has been in love with Luke for ever, but even more so since they slept together a few months ago — and he’s finding it hard to get excited about any wedding stuff.

I loved everything about this ferociously clever contemporary reworking of the marriage plot. Sensational.

Seven Exes

by Lucy Vine (S&S £8.99, 432pp)

Esther has got a brilliant job and wonderful friends, but what she really wants is to find her Mr Right and embark on a fairytale relationship with the man of her dreams.

She’s in the pub with her two flatmates when she comes across an old magazine article about how there are seven people a woman dates before she finds ‘the one’.

The seven are categorised as first love, work mistake, the overlap, friends with benefits, missed chance, bastard and the serious one. Esther realises that each of her exes fits these types and decides to revisit them in case she threw away her perfect person by accident.

It’s not all hearts and flowers, however. This re-engagement with her past relationships exposes all the negative emotions which accompanied them, and begins to prove that exes are mostly ex for a reason. Funny and heart-warming.

The Cassandra Complex

by Holly Smale (Century £14.99, 432pp)

On the same day that Cassie’s boyfriend, Will, breaks up with her out of nowhere, she also loses her job.

In a bracing exit interview with her boss, she is informed that the problem isn’t her work performance — but rather her personality and general demeanour.

Another area of Cassie’s life that’s going abysmally badly is her flat-share in London — she’s on her sixth in ten years and relations within are now so fractious it seems like she’ll soon be looking for a seventh.

It’s clear that the common denominator in all these negative events in her life is Cassie herself. What’s not clear is how she ends up reliving the same awful day, all over again. Somehow, Cassie is time travelling.

She can’t get back to the exact places in history she wants to go, but soon learns she can make changes to her recent behaviour, creating different and much better outcomes. Change causes growth and I rooted for Cassie throughout. Wonderful.

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)

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 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.