It’s hardly been a moment since I posted my review of Beth O’Leary’s The No Show, so I’m coming in unexpectedly hard here with the romance novels. On a practical level it’s just that all my favourite authors of this genre have really been leaning into the Spring and Summer months with new releases but, on a more emotional note, I think these are great reads for pure escapism.

As someone who just finished a Faber Academy course and is in the process of writing her first novel, I’m both deeply envious and completely in awe of Anna Bailey, the 24 year old author of Tall Bones who finished her novel writing course, the Curtis Brown one, just last year (!) and was quickly published.