Our Christmas book wish list

FEARLESS WOMEN ARE RULING THE SHELVES AND OUR HEARTS IN SARRA MANNING’S READS OF THE MONTH

So Lucky by Dawn O’porter

(Harpercollins, £14.99, out 31st October) So Lucky is the story of three women who are living the dream. There’s Lauren, Instagram influencer, about to be married to the perfect man. Wedding planner Beth, who everyone thinks has got career and family nailed. And Ruby – enigmatic, eccentric and living by her own rules. But scratch the surface and all three are falling apart in this painfully honest novel that captures what it means to (try to) be a modern woman. Funny, thought-provoking and filthy!

The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis

(Hodder & Stoughton, £14.99, out 7th November) The first of The Brontë Mysteries, The Vanished Bride is set on the sisters’ beloved Yorkshire Moors, where a young woman has been snatched from her blood-soaked bedchamber. The signs point to murder and Charlotte Brontë is determined to find the culprit. Great, gothic fun and the Brontës are so skilfully depicted that it’s no stretch at all to imagine the sisters, and their wastrel brother, Branwell, as amateur sleuths.

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

(Viking, £14.99, out 31st October)

What a special, precious book this is. A sequel to Elizabeth Strout’s peerless Olive Kitteridge (but easily read as a standalone) in Olive, Again we once again meet Strout’s eponymous heroine, who is older, but not necessarily wiser. In a series of vignettes, or loosely linked short stories, we follow the messy, complicated, often tragic lives of Olive and her fellow inhabitants of the small coastal town of Crosby, Maine. But Olive, Again is also a book full of hope and humanity and the difficult, irascible Olive will worm her way right into your heart.

On The Up by Alice O’keeffe

(Coronet, £16.99, out 14th November)

Sylvia’s just given birth to her second child. She, her children and her poetry-loving, minimum wage-earning boyfriend, Obe, are crammed into a council flat next door to the neighbour from hell. No wonder sleep-deprived Sylvia dreams of another life in a house with a garden and room to breathe. But when their council estate is earmarked for development, Sylvia finds her groove, a community and a sense of purpose. On The Up is a gem of a novel that holds up a mirror to the way we live now.