‘Fabulously stylish and funny’: The Popular fiction you should read now – SO GOOD TO SEE
SO GOOD TO SEE YOU by Francesca Hornak (Piatkus £20, 384pp)
I LOVE a wedding novel as much as I do a campus one. This brilliantly combines the two.
Middle-class Rosie, working-class Daniel and posh Serge were close at their Oxbridgey university. Meeting at a wedding 15 years later, they’ve long drifted apart. But the past still haunts them.
Rosie never quite got over being dumped by Serge, compared to whom Daniel still feels like an oik.
The boot’s on the other foot now though; Dan’s a Hollywood sleb whose star-power filmmaker Serge desperately needs.
Secrets, lies and long-held regrets riddle this fabulously stylish and funny novel.
THE HOMEMADE GOD by Rachel Joyce (Doubleday £20, 384pp)
VIC Kemp, rich and famous artist of the Jack Vettriano type, gets married out of the blue to someone his grown-up children haven’t met.
They suspect she is a gold-digger and, when their father dies soon afterwards, think she might be a murderer too. At the family villa in Italy, the siblings confront their mysterious stepmother.
But Bella-Mae is far from what they expect, and after meeting her, other questions arise. Was Vic as a father, never mind as an artist, quite as brilliant as they thought?
The characters are wonderful, especially alcoholic lawyer Netta, the plot is enthralling and the descriptions of Italy mouthwatering. I devoured this fabulous, funny, original and moving novel in a day and urge you to do the same.
THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA by Caroline Madden (Eriu £13.99, 288pp)
ELIZA, a former famous pianist, is now marooned in middle-class Dublin, mother to a challenging child and wife to a conceited, selfish and possibly unfaithful theatre manager.
The judgy school mumfluencers, especially pushy stage mum Gina, are the last straw. In desperation Eliza consults therapist Ellen Early.
But will her unconventional methods save Eliza’s unravelling marriage and help her lonely daughter?
I enjoyed the snappy, wisecracking style and the trendy upmarket setting.
But I wondered all along why Eliza was bothering. Why not simply leave her terrible husband and get back on the piano stool?