CONTEMPORARY
HUSH by Kate Maxwell (Virago £16.99, 384 pp)
THIS beautifully written debut explores what it really means to choose to go it alone as a single mother, as well as the unforeseen consequences of that choice. stevie is 38 and at the top of her career game after five years of hard graft in New York.
Yearning to be a mother, she jumps on a work opportunity to move back home to london and decides to undergo IVF using a sperm donor at the same time. maybe it’s naive but she doesn’t imagine much will change with her high-flying job, and certainly doesn’t expect to be ostracised by her previously supportive male boss.
Difficult as the work stuff is, the most important thing she never imagined is that she might not enjoy motherhood. It simply never occurred to stevie that she might feel she has made a mistake and want to give her baby back — back where, or back to whom, she’s not sure. I loved everything about this emotionally intelligent, compelling, raw and original book. Fabulous.
JUST GOT REAL by Jane Fallon (Michael Joseph £14.99, 400 pp)
I’M A huge fan of this author’s gripping, sharp and brilliantly twisty books, and I’m delighted to report that this latest is just as deliciously readable as the rest. single mum Joni signs up to a dating app mainly to please her daughter, who is off to university and worried about her mum being lonely.
Joni is unsure about this endeavour. However, soon she’s enmeshed in an online flirtation with successful businessman ant, who’s keen to meet in real life.
I won’t give too much away, but it’s not long before Joni realises she’s not the only woman he is seeing.
Disgusted by ant’s behaviour and concerned for the others, Joni contacts them. a rollercoaster of revenge ensues. I loved it.
COMPLICIT by Winnie M Li (Orion £14.99, 464 pp)
FORMER film producer sarah left a Hollywood career after a traumatic incident with her billionaire boss Hugo. she now teaches ‘screenwriting 101’ to a group of mostly uninterested students and tries not to think about what happened in her past life.
When sarah receives an email from a famous journalist working for the New York Times on a story about Hugo’s sexual misconduct, everything she tried to forget is suddenly uppermost in her mind. she revisits her past, reflects on the mistakes she made and decides to tell the truth and set the record straight.
The daughter of hard-working immigrants, sarah’s harrowing story reveals how easy it is for someone to compromise their principles in the pursuit of success and how, when you’ve looked the other way once, it becomes exponentially easier to do so again and again. a timely and important read.