CONTEMPORARY SARA LAWRENCE

THE SUMMER JOB by Lizzy Dent (Viking £12.99, 384 pp)

I POSITIVELY luxuriated in the blissful escapism this warm and witty romcom delivers. Birdy is at a loose end when her best friend and flatmate heather decamps for a long, ill-fated holiday with her horrible new lover and decides to rent out their place for the duration.

Birdy promises to get sommelier heather out of the dream job she had lined up at an expensive Scottish hotel but, with nowhere to live, ends up pretending to be heather and taking it herself.

After all, recommending drinks to discerning guests despite having no training can’t be that hard, can it? Birdy doesn’t tell heather and, after a very shaky start, begins learning the blurb on the wine list by heart.

things improve for our imposter professionally but she’s thrust into a personal nightmare when she develops feelings for a man who thinks she’s someone else...

THE NEVER ENDING SUMMER by Emma Kennedy (Arrow £7.99, 528 pp)

A COMING-of-age story with a difference. Best friends Agnes and Bea have just finished secretarial college in the 1970s and have been greatly affected by Germaine Greer’s the Female eunuch.

Wanting adventure, they lie to their parents, telling them they are travelling around europe when, in reality, they’re staying in a flat in london, keen to become second-wave feminists and offload their burdensome virginity.

When Florence, Agnes’s mother, also reads the book, she experiences her own awakening and realises she has been existing rather than living. Conscious that she’s halfway through her life, she leaves her loveless marriage and sets off on a solo road trip around europe — the first time she’s been anywhere on her own. Florence’s story shows that huge changes can be made at any age. her courageous journey towards self-discovery kept me rooting for her the whole way.

DREAMLAND by Rosa Rankin-Gee (Scribner £14.99, 480 pp)

THIS wise, sad and often terrifying novel depicts a dystopian Britain not too far from now. Climate change, lack of housing and absence of social care means people deemed worthless are given cash grants to move out of london.

Chance’s family is one of those, initially viewing their relocation to Margate as a fresh start by the seaside.

As Chance grows up, however, the power cuts, water shortages, overheated winters and rising sea levels increase, causing schools to close and riots and looting to step up. When a wall is built to keep the tidal waves at bay, it becomes obvious that Chance’s family — and others like them — have not been relocated but abandoned to their fate.

this brutal read has moments of hope and love but also serves as a hideous warning to fight for what’s right.