Zoe & Mila by Jodie Shelley

Jodie Shelley’s third novel features best friends Zoe and Mila, who are facing different life challenges. Zoe owns a recruitment agency, but her male receptionist is ruining her life. She thought having a male in this role would be cool and progressive, but when Owen bothers to turn up for work, he is rude and dismissive. And his excuses for not being at work are becoming increasingly ridiculous. Can she mend his ways or dismiss him?

Either way, it feels much too stressful.

At least Zoe’s other employee, Layla, offers some light relief with her experiments with cosmetic procedures, which hilariously never go to plan. Things take a further hilarious turn when the company's foosball table is stolen, and they decide to get it back.

Mila is constantly exhausted and then finds out she is pregnant with her fifth child, despite her husband’s vasectomy. She doesn’t know if she can cope and doesn’t know what to do. Meanwhile, her devoted husband Oliver is being harassed by a younger, female colleague at his work and is at his wits’ end with her inappropriate comments and advances.

If you love books by Marian Keyes, you will love this! Jodie has a real talent for writing humour, while still gently delving into deeper issues.

Jodie Shelley has been a medallist in the Wishing Shelf Awards, so her previous novels, The Tūi Has Landed, and A Thousand Paper Cups, are novels to look out for too.

Reviewer: Karen McMillan

Bank Street Publishing