{"id":19325,"date":"2025-09-13T04:12:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T04:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/19325\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T04:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T04:12:12","slug":"new-popular-fiction-who-invited-this-kid-into-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/19325\/","title":{"rendered":"New popular fiction \u2014 who invited this kid into my life?"},"content":{"rendered":"

New popular fiction \u2014 who invited this kid into my life? <\/p>\n

, The TimesWell, This Is Awkward by Esther Walker\"Illustration<\/p>\n

Mair\u00e9ad has constructed her perfect London life \u2014 successful, single and child-free. She\u2019s still nominally in charge of her influencer marketing company even though it was bought up by American investors, and the younger employees\u2019 backhanded compliments seem to be getting sharper. And yes, the 40-plus dating scene is less than stellar. And her bohemian mother is more interested in her lodgers than in her own children. But things are generally great. Until her militant, off-grid sister, Lenny, whom Mair\u00e9ad hasn\u2019t seen for years, ends up in hospital after a mysterious accident, and Mair\u00e9ad has to provide a temporary home for her 11-year-old niece, Sunshine. The child definitely doesn\u2019t live up to her name \u2014 she\u2019s filthy, sullen, blunt to the point of rudeness, and mainly interested in pacing in circles and ignoring everyone while she reads voraciously. The journalist and podcaster Esther Walker delights in her odd-couple pairing and the upheaval Sunny brings to Mair\u00e9ad\u2019s life, in practical and emotional terms. Is it annoying that the message seems to be that your life is not fulfilled if you don\u2019t have a child? Frankly, yes, and there is rather too much serendipity at play. But Walker offers smart, peppy humour and good comic characters who power her tale along with brio.
Bedford Square \u00a316.99 pp323
Buy a copy from The Times Bookshop<\/a><\/p>\n

Say You\u2019ll Be There by Nina Millns\"Illustration<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot going on in Nina Millns\u2019s second novel \u2014 and much of it is quite grim. Tess, Candace, Arianna and Dana bond at school after they all turn up for Red Nose Day as Scary Spice. An unlikely quartet, they sustain each other through everything that adolescence in late-1990s London throws at them: broken families, awful boyfriends, a sexually abusive teacher, substance abuse, homelessness, rape \u2026 the list is long. Meanwhile, a parallel timeline is running: it\u2019s 2022 and the friendships have frayed, but Candace reconnects with Tess and Arianna to tell them that wayward Dana has gone missing. Their search for her opens old wounds and brings chaos back into their lives \u2014 but it brings some catharsis for these battered survivors. The time frame jumps can be a bit confusing \u2014 as can some startlingly anachronistic cultural references \u2014 and the denouement is a burst of pure melodrama. But Millns draws strong female characters and writes punchily engaging dialogue, and conveys the grit and snatched joys of the girls\u2019 turbulent teenage years with real affection.
Simon & Schuster \u00a39.99 pp528
Buy a copy<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 What we\u2019re reading this week \u2014 by the Times books team<\/a><\/p>\n

It Might Never Happen by Emily Slapper\"Book<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more teenage angst in Emily Slapper\u2019s second novel, courtesy of Noa and Elliot and their tortuous attempts to find love. We meet them aged 25: Elliot\u2019s life has always been dominated by caring for his severely autistic elder brother \u2014 so much so that he has never shaped an identity of his own and is consumed with anxiety. Noa, meanwhile, is desperate to be loved, which leads her from one appalling boyfriend to another. Elliot, we learn, was her first real love, aged 14, when they were at school in Stoke \u2014 when they meet again by chance and are drawn back together, two whirling mental health crises collide. Can they save each other? The narrative flips between teenage and adult Noa and Elliot, the detail of their unsparing inner monologues (which can be pretty funny) punctuated by bracketed, all-knowing authorial interjections (which can be annoying). It\u2019s strangely compelling \u2014 you\u2019re plunged so deep into this pair\u2019s forensically examined trials and tribulations, you can\u2019t help but want to know if they make it.
HQ \u00a316.99 pp337
Buy a copy<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 Read more book reviews and interviews \u2014 and see what\u2019s top of the Sunday Times Bestsellers List<\/a><\/p>\n

Slow Burn by Oti Mabuse\"Illustration<\/p>\n

Strictly Come Dancing lurches into life again next Saturday, so what better time for a dance-themed romance by the former Strictly star Oti Mabuse? Slow Burn, written with Lorraine Brown, follows Lira, a former Latin ballroom champion, and her Cinderella transformation from put-upon daughter running her parents\u2019 suburban dance studio to star of a big new show that has a West End run and a European tour. And \u2014 surprise! \u2014 the male lead is Gabriele, a smouldering Italian with whom she had a night of shenanigans 13 years previously that she hasn\u2019t been able to forget. Somehow, Lira goes from teaching pensioners, toddlers and wedding couples to being fit enough to carry a West End show in three weeks with not even a tweaked muscle \u2014 such is the magic of the romance novel. And she does spend a lot of time worrying about dance studio admin. But when Mabuse, a former Latin dance champion, gets into the tempestuous passions of dancing salsa, rumba and, above all, Argentine tango with a hot partner there\u2019s fun to be had.
Simon & Schuster \u00a320 pp364
Buy a copy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"What<\/a><\/p>\n

September 12 2025, 5.00pm<\/p>\n

Robbie Millen | Laura Hackett | Ceci Browning | Johanna Thomas-Corr<\/p>\n

\"Miriam<\/a><\/p>\n

MY CULTURE FIX<\/p>\n

September 08 2025, 11.00pm<\/p>\n

Blanca Schofield, Assistant Editor, Culture and Books<\/p>\n

\"Natalie<\/a><\/p>\n

MY CULTURAL FIRSTS<\/p>\n

September 09 2025, 6.00pm<\/p>\n

Emily-Whitchurch<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

September 12 2025, 11.00pm<\/p>\n

Lucy Bannerman<\/p>\n

\"Kadiatu<\/a><\/p>\n

September 12 2025, 6.00pm<\/p>\n

Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

September 12 2025, 11.30pm<\/p>\n

Blanca Schofield<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New popular fiction \u2014 who invited this kid into my life? , The TimesWell, This Is Awkward by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-19325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}