Summer of sizzling storylines

Choose your next read from the latest page- turners for women

WHEN their two daughters were growing up, Laura was a stay- at- home mother while husband Dom worked as a property developer. Their home was a welcoming safe haven where Laura always had something delicious bubbling on the Aga.

Their daughters are now away at university so Laura hopes that she and Dom can rekindle their romance. She also has plans to transform their home and to transform her life, turning the two spare bedrooms into Airbnb rentals. So Laura didn’t see the explosion coming.

When a stranger tells her some devastating news, it turns her life upside down. But Laura finds consolation in cooking and her most treasured possession is her grandmother’s recipe box. It soon proves to be a source of inspiration and she books a stall at the local artisan food market.

Life starts to improve for Laura. She is hurt and angry but she is surviving. However, Dom is falling into debt and despair, and Laura must put her feelings aside to come to his rescue.

A Family Recipe is an engaging, beautifully written feelgood story with a dual- time structure switching between the modern day with Laura and her family, and the 1940s when Laura’s grandmother Kanga became a new mother.

It makes for a glorious summer read packed with warm characters, family dramas and mishaps. It is an absolute delight. AC

THE BRIGHTON MERMAID by Dorothy Koomson Century, £ 12.99

ONE night in 1993, teenagers Nell and Jude sneak out without their parents’ knowledge to go to a party thrown by a local boy. They are making their way home across Brighton beach in the early hours when they discover a body on the sand.

This young woman is never identified and she becomes known as the Brighton Mermaid. But the discovery of her body changes Nell and Jude’s lives. The police are convinced that Nell and her family are connected to the death. Then Jude disappears.

In the present day, Nell is still obsessed with the Brighton Mermaid and with Jude’s disappearance. She gives up work to spend every minute online, in search of someone, anyone, who may hold a clue to the identity of the mermaid and to Jude’s disappearance. And she gradually uncovers a dark story that people with vested interests want to keep secret.

The Brighton Mermaid is a mystery story, a crime thriller and a fascinating exploration of relationships, showing how a single event can affect so many lives for so long.

Koomson’s characters are perfectly formed yet flawed, showing her acute insight into the human psyche.

Thanks to their depth and intricately woven, ever- changing relationships, the novel simmers with tension and an undercurrent of darkness. AC WHAT LIES WITHIN by Annabelle Thorpe Quercus, £ 14.99 FREYA from England and Hamad from Doha meet at university and feel an instant connection. But this is no love story. It is a tale of friendship that survives a decade until the actions of Freya’s husband Paul and Hamad’s glamorous girlfriend Racine threaten to destroy their lives and their friendships for ever.

Annabelle Thorpe’s novel opens with wealthy Hamad making Freya and Paul a generous offer in a bid to repair their crumbling marriage. He asks the couple to move to Marrakech where Paul, an architect, can redesign three historic houses which Hamad bought for Racine in a desperate bid to win back her love.

To Freya he offers an even more tantalising gift: the opportunity to experience adventure and to write the biography of his grandmother Dame Edith, an exotic adventuress.

But Edith’s secrets could unravel his life and challenge everything he holds to be true.

As Freya is drawn into Morocco’s exotic world, Paul grows distant. Soon she is questioning whether he has been unfaithful and whether she should be too.

Then Racine goes missing and when the truth is revealed it threatens to destroy them all.

This is a pacy, engaging tale of human weakness and of passion