CONTEMPORARY
QUEEN BEE by Jane Fallon
(Penguin £8.99, 400 pp)
Fallon is a fabulously engaging writer who excels at counter- intuitive plot lines, creates believable protagonists who are as capable of bad behaviour as good and, as in life, there’s an awful lot of grey area.
Here, she focuses on a group of women friends who live in an eye- wateringly expensive london street. after cleaning company boss laura’s marriage breaks down, she rents a super-wealthy couple’s staff annex while she looks for a flat.
she has plenty of rich clients, but this sort of money makes her uncomfortable.
she feels even worse when stella, the Queen Bee of this glitzy girl gang, misjudges laura and encourages the others to ostracise her. When laura discovers information she believes that stella, however vile, deserves to know, the two form an unlikely alliance. Blissful escapism — I adored it.
ALL MY LIES ARE TRUE by Dorothy Koomson
(Headline £12.99, 560 pp) THIs is a sequel to 2010’s bestselling The Ice Cream Girls, a gripping emotional drama about teenagers serena and Poppy, who were accused of murder and, after a horrific trial, one was freed while the other was imprisoned.
This is set ten years later, when both have moved on — outwardly at least — and try not to think about each other.
The past has a habit of coming back, however, and it does so here in a shocking way. serena’s daughter, Verity, has been in a secret relationship with Poppy’s younger brother, logan, for a year.
When he is attacked and left in a coma, Verity is arrested. as her barrister points out, she’d better play ball because a black girl is already at a huge disadvantage when it comes to a fair hearing. I raced through this brilliantly brutal rollercoaster of a read.
THE SHELF by Helly Acton
(zaffre £12.99, 416 pp) aMy has been with Jamie for two years and is so desperate to be married she overlooks all the dreadful things he does. He calls her ‘Piglet’, constantly pokes fun at her and her life and ignores her needs in favour of his own.
The red flags are overwhelming, but amy ignores them because comparing herself with others on social media tells her she should be married with children by now.
When Jamie takes her on a surprise holiday, amy believes a proposal is imminent.
What happens, however, is that she’s dumped and left alone on the set of a hideous new reality TV show called The shelf.
The premise of this show is so nightmarish it left me feeling vaguely unclean, but the upshot is that amy now has time to look at why she allowed herself to be treated so badly. Fascinating.