Fiction So Many Beats of the Heart

Carrie Cox: Affirm Press, $33

When you’re a therapist specialising in relationship counselling, you’d expect to see warning signs that your twodecade marriage might be on the rocks. But Evie is blindsided when husband Hamish announces he’s leaving. She must deal with her own devastation alongside the grief of her teenage son, and the emotional and physical distance from her uni student daughter. This romantic novel with a difference starts quite slowly but it’s worth persisting, hoping Evie can work her way back to an even keel with a little help from her work experience, new friends and a refreshed outlook. That’s interspersed with mid-life doubts, despair, hope and humour. It’s a story full of heart and heartache.

CARINA BRUCE