CHICK LIT

EVERYTHING MUST GO by Jenny Fran Davis (Corsair £7.99)

ThE author was a 20-year-old undergraduate when she wrote this quirky and totally gripping coming-of-age story, which is perhaps what gives our sarcastic, highly intelligent and slightly offbeat protagonist and narrator such veracity.

Letters and journal entries typical of a student’s life tell the story of high-achieving, popular Flora goldwasser, who leaves her traditional, pretentious private girls’ school in new York to finish her studies at an alternative, hippie establishment in the countryside.

Flora keeps to herself the real reason for such a radical move, privately documenting it exhaustively — she’s fallen in love with Elijah, a young man she mistakenly believed would be teaching there. Flora recounts her feelings about Elijah with the true breathlessness expected of a teenage crush, but has enough self-knowledge to realise how ridiculous such an abundance of crazy emotions can make a person.

it’s smart, funny and different.

THE HATING GAME by Sally Thorne

(Piatkus £8.99) ThiS charming debut offers a wry examination of the common perception that there is only a wafer-thin line between love and hate. Lucy is a people-pleaser, focused on doing nice things for everyone — except the man with whom she shares an office.

Josh is exceedingly handsome, but never smiles, and his main aim in life seems to be tormenting Lucy with sarcastic insults and undermining her efforts at work.

She cannot stand him, and it’s obvious the feeling is mutual. or, at least, until Lucy falls ill and Josh looks after her with previously unimaginable levels of tenderness. First impressions are shot to pieces, but prove hard to abandon entirely, and it’s not long before Lucy has no idea what to believe. it’s warm, witty and wise, and i rooted for Lucy right from the start.

THE WORST CASE SCENARIO COOKERY CLUB by Chrissie Manby

(Hodder £7.99) WhEn Liz’s husband leaves her for a much younger, clean-eating food and fashion blogger, the bitter break-up is made much worse by constant online updates of her ex’s fabulous new life with her nemesis.

A year later, she still feels Tasered by rage, but when Liz’s teenage daughter, Saskia, starts refusing to eat their usual ready meals because they’re not healthy enough, she fights back by enrolling on a cookery course run by local heart-throb chef Alex.

There, she finds herself studying alongside newly-widowed John and workaholic Bella, and the unlikely trio’s new friendship and confidence in the kitchen begin to affect their lives outside.

i’ve been a fan of Manby’s writing for years and thoroughly enjoyed this.