I was ready for the new Meg Mason and boy did it not disappoint. She always writes the most relatable characters whether you’ve been through the same situations or not. Sophie is a woman that hasn’t quite got all her life sorted. Well she thought she did but then the chaos begins. I loved how this story took infatuation with a famous person and how it has the possibility to completely change your life in more ways than one. There is so much that was encapsulated within this book that I loved. Next one please!

Loved loved loved. I’ve never read a story like this one, that describes so perfectly love as a distraction from grief and loneliness, and how all consuming it can be. Really enjoyed it and will be recommending widely when it’s out!

I LOVE this woman’s words. I would read her shopping list and I’m sure she would surprise me. Unpredictable plot with a main character so well drawn, who shares everything with no holds barred. It's like reading your best friend's diary at a really sticky, upsetting time in her life. Meg Mason has delivered another character, just like Martha from Sorrow and Bliss, who is flawed but lovably so. The reader is rooting for her right from the outset. I read this at a very busy time of my life, and picking it up to read was such a joy every time. Just brilliant!

Sophie is struggling. Brutally dumped by her husband, who gave her the news without even removing his ear buds, she is eking out an existence in his bleak and rundown “investment” flat. Her survival tactic is immersing herself in books, and she works as a tech assistant for literary festivals, helping authors with their speaking events but rarely receiving acknowledgement or appreciation. In her crushing loneliness, she becomes obsessed with an acclaimed author who becomes like an invisible friend and even love object to her, and her life beegins to change. I don’t think this book will have the massive popular appeal of Mason’s first novel, “Sorrow and Bliss,” as it is quite a slow burn and is rather more quirky, but for a patient and thoughtful reader it brings great rewards, and as an extreme reader myself I positively wallowed in the bookish setting. It is very poignant and compassionate about the lows that can strike often unexpectedly, particularly loss of love and friendship, grief and infertility, but despite this is often darkly funny. As Sophie’s unusual back story slowly unfolds, we get to understand her and the forces that made her who she is so that she is a fully rounded person who seems more like a living person than a character, while the author Lilac reveals vividly what it is like to be a celebrated writer who gets recognised in public by people who feel they not only know her through reading and loving her books but also somehow own a piece of her. Such is the power of the written word, very much in evidence in this absorbing novel.