Anatomy of an explosive affair

WENDY HOLDEN OTHER PEOPLE’S HUSBANDS by Elizabeth Noble (Michael Joseph £14.99, 496 pp)

DOM and Sarah and Natalie and Kit have been in a group of close friends for 20 years. Glamorous middle- class types, they met at the nursery school gate and their equally glamorous children have grown up together.

Nat and Dom have always secretly had a thing for one another, but when it suddenly bursts into flames and a passionate affair begins, the consequences for the group are catastrophic.

Can anything be saved? Noble’s up-close, minute-byminute observation of her characters provides a fascinating insight into contemporary coupledom and family politics.

A great big brick of a pageturner, full of emotion and fabulous lifestyle detail.

THE REUNION by Polly Phillips (Simon & Schuster £8.99, 352 pp)

THE dreaming spires of Cambridge are the setting for this campus drama. Yummy mummy Emily and her wealthy husband Nick return to their old college for the get-together of the title.

Little does Nick know it, but his wife has planned the mother of all vengeances on the people who made her university life a misery.

Betrayal, violence, envy and a ruinous photograph are only some of the issues.

We flip back and forth between the present and a gradual reveal about the past. However, despite Em’s bestlaid plans, things revenge-wise don’t quite work out; there are some truly dramatic twists. It’s an excellent premise, and I enjoyed the

read, but I did find the heroine slightly irritating.

SEPARATION FOR BEGINNERS by Joe Portman (Welbeck £12.99, 400 pp)

THIS warm-hearted comedy about unlikely flatmates had me laughing from start to finish. Divorced Pete’s sharing his cramped Woking basement with daughter Susie and her slobby boyfriend Niall. When Susie moves abroad he’s left, most reluctantly, with Niall.

Pete’s at rock bottom; missing his ex-wife, saddled with a failing business, conscious of a shrinking pool of friends and now stuck with an unwanted lodger.

But there’s more to Niall than meets the eye and as the odd couple become closer they both find the courage to tackle their problems.

Sharp-witted, selfdeprecating and honest, this smart slice of modern life is man-lit at its best.