"A smart, laugh-out-loud debut novel about a deeply flawed but endearing stay-at-home mom, a book for anyone who took Bridget Jones to heart a decade ago-and now has kids. Lucy Sweeney has three sons, a husband on a short fuse, and a tendency toward domestic disaster. It has been years since the dirty laundry pile was less than three feet high, months since she remembered to have sex, and weeks since her toddler started using the trash can as a toilet. Lucy is living in a constant state of emergency, caught between perfectionist Yummy Mummy No. 1 and competitive Alpha Mum, making it hard for her to remember exactly why she exchanged her career and sanity for less than blissful domesticity. When she begins a flirtation with Sexy Domesticated Dad, a father from the school car-pool lane, the string of white lies to cover up the trail of chaos and illicit desire starts to unravel and disaster looms. Slummy Mummy: The Secret Life of Lucy Sweeney is a hilarious novel about the dilemmas of modern marriage and motherhood for those who never discovered their inner domestic goddess. Pitch-perfect and satisfyingly smart, it does for the stay-at-home mother what Allison Pearson's blockbuster bestseller I Don't Know How She Does It did for the working mom: It offers a lovable, flawed character who resonates, entertains, and undoubtedly has it worse than you do."
"Brought to you by Penguin.
Everyone is talking about Grace Vermuyden's family.
Once it was for all the right reasons - now it's for all the wrong ones.
Grace wants the world for her two daughters - especially after her own dysfunctional upbringing.
Mia is wonderfully one-of-a-kind, even if her imagination does run a bit wild. Lilly is everyone's golden girl, with a glittering future ahead of her.
Then Lilly collapses suddenly at school, and Grace's carefully-ordered world is turned upside down.
Lilly was the one she didn't have to worry about. But as dark rumours swirl around the school gates and things start to spiral out of control, everyone in their tight-knit community has their own theory about what happened.
Grace is shocked to discover her eldest daughter had a hidden life, and begins obsessively looking for clues.
Which is when she takes her eyes off Mia.
Grace thought she had a happy family.
But what if she never really knew her daughters at all?"
"When Rosie's best friend has an affair with her husband, the consequences reverberate through the lives of two families. Relationships are torn apart, friendships shattered and childish innocence destroyed. Her daughter Daisy's fragile hold on reality begins to unravel when a letter arrives that opens old wounds. Rosie's son Max blames himself for everything that happened. And her ex-husband Nick has his own version of events. As long-repressed memories bubble to the surface, the past has never seemed more present and the truth more uncertain."
"When Ailsa Field uproots her family to Norfolk, she's determined a change of scene will fix all their problems. Then the Fairports move in next door and Ailsa is terrified their influence will damage her family's new start. But for teenagers Romy and Jay, none of that matters. But when Romy decides to help Jay, what started as an innocent plan quickly threatens to destroy the Field family forever…"
