3 page-turners

Friendship

GRACE UNDER PRESSURE by Tori Haschka, Simon & Schuster

Female friendship and mummy angst fuel this frothy, heartwarming tale of cookbook creator Grace Harkness, who teams up with a group of harried Sydney mums who’ve decided to leave the tiresome men in their lives and set up a “mummune”. It should be a dream sharing the load of school pick-ups and boring chores, while having a sympathetic ear to call on, but of course there’s trouble in utopia. Grace’s mums will have you chuckling, while also empathising with their plight.

Thriller

THE GOOD TEACHER by Petronella McGovern, Allen & Unwin

The principal chooses kindy teacher Allison to take Gracie into her class because she is the best. Holding her dad’s hand, the four-year-old is grieving – her mother died, and she’s battling a rare cancer. Allison was looking forward to a 50th birthday trip to the Great Barrier Reef, when her husband of 24 years left her for another woman – son Felix, 15, opting to go too. As heartbroken Allison lavishes love on the bald girl in a bandana, will she cross a line?

Royal fiction

THE TOUR by Andrew Mackie, Michael Joseph

It’s 1954 and Queen Elizabeth II is coming to Australia. Against the backdrop of that historic tour, Andrew Mackie spins a fictional tale of 19-yearold identical twins – quiet Violet and irrepressible Daisie – who are hired from the UK as maids to HM’s lady-in-waiting. Sailing on the SS Gothic, Violet is all aflutter when she spies her idol, the Queen, and handsome Prince Philip. Yet, of course, it’s Daisie who attracts royal attention. Through calamities and pomp, we follow the girls across Australia as their lives change forever.