This month’s best books

Literary editor Sarra Manning picks her five favourite reads out this March

Impossible by Sarah Lotz

(Harpercollins, £14.99, out 17th March) When Nick and Bee meet virtually thanks to a misdirected email, they have an instant connection. But when they arrange to meet, they realise they can never be together – to reveal anything else would involve spoilers. Suffice to say that Impossible is unlike any love story you’ve read; it’s audacious, original and you’ll be desperate for Nick and Bee to get a happy ever after.

Reputation by Sarah Vaughan

(Simon & Schuster, £14.99, out 3rd March) Sarah Vaughan’s back with another compelling, one-sitting thriller. MP Emma Webster is ambitious, passionate and going places until she’s charged with the murder of a tabloid journalist. Zeitgeisty as hell, Reputation is a clever, nuanced look at how women in the public eye are constantly on trial – and then it throws in half a dozen twists you won’t see coming.

Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

(Viking, £14.99, out 31st March)

Yinka is a romantic heroine unlike any other. She’s saving herself for marriage, plans her love life like an actionable work task and laments both her J-shaped bottom and her numerous aunties all asking God to find her a husband. But as Yinka searches for a date for a friend’s wedding, she realises that along the way, she’s lost herself. The streets of south London sing as loud as the choir at the All Welcome Church in this dazzling and funny debut.

The Flames by Sophie Haydock

(Doubleday, £14.95, out 17th March)

The four heroines of The Flames are instantly recognisable from the pictures Austrian artist Egon Schiele painted of them, but now their voices can be heard: the Harms sisters, Adele and Edith, who both fall under the artist’s spell; Gertrude, Egon’s wild sister; and Vally, as guarded as she is uninhibited. Set in a bohemian Vienna that is about to be torn apart by the First World War, this is a stunning story of love, art and betrayal.

At The Table by Claire Powell

(Fleet, £14.99, out 31st March) Meet the Maguires: Linda and Gerry, who suddenly split up after decades together, and their grown-up children, Nicole and Jamie, who have to confront the cracks in their own lives. We follow them over a year of meals, from fancy restaurants to takeaways or a rushed sandwich, as they try to make peace with old resentments and find a new way to be a family. At The Table is an assured, exquisitely drawn read that has word-of-mouth bestseller written all over it.