BEST BOOKS
Zoe West picks the best reads for you
Promise Me
by Jill Mansell (£16.99, Headline, HB)
Starting over can be difficult, but when Lou loses her job and flat she has no choice. Moving to a tiny Cotswolds village, she finds herself working for cantankerous 80-year-old Edgar Allsopp, which is probably the last thing she wants – until she gets to know him. Determined to help him fall in love with life again, this charming story proves just why Mansell is often hailed as the ‘queen of feel-good fiction’. With a cast of delightful characters, including the charismatic Remy, you’ll not want to leave this enchanting little village in the Cotswolds.
River Sing Me Home
by Eleanor Shearer (£16.99, Headline, HB) It’s 1834 in Barbados and slavery has been abolished, but what does that really mean when former slaves are still required to work for another six years – for free? In an ultimate act of resistance, Rachel goes on a heartbreaking and hopeful journey through the Caribbean and South America in search of the five children – now adults – who were taken from her during slavery. Powerful, moving and lyrical: it’s a compelling novel from a debut author who’s one to watch.
Amazing Grace Adam
by Fran Littlewood (£14.99, Michael Joseph, HB) If you’ve ever felt like it’s all too much and wondered how much more you can take, you might empathise with Grace Adams. In a scene reminiscent of 1993 film Falling Down, Grace decides she’s had enough, abandons her car in the middle of a traffic jam and journeys across London to make amends with her husband and teenage daughter. Taking place across a single day, this brilliant novel exposes the messiness of marriage, the complexities of a motherand-daughter relationship, parental guilt, loss of identity and what happens when the perimenopause looms large. It’s a story of a midlife heroine seeking redemption, and so much more.