This is completely different from anything I've read recently, but was Norfolk Library's Online Book Club March read.

Firstly, this is a brilliantly woven and extremely relevant story for the current era.

There are no major spoilers here as I'm not going to be giving anything away by saying that the story is set in modern-day east London, and that Jessica is a single mother fighting to hold her family together whilst negotiating unemployment, homelessness and both old, and new relationships.

There are so many people who would, or could, see themselves in the same circumstances as the protagonist, myself included. I mainly have huge empathy for her, but also for her elderly father, and for her eighteen year old daughter, Hazel; having experienced similar hardships throughout my lifetime.

The author has been sensitive to the circumstances and relationships between the characters, making this a memorable book moving forward. One which long into the future, readers will enjoy as it gives a window's eye view into what will highly likely be an overlooked example of contemporary society during the first quarter of this century.

Absolutely broke me with the second half, starts slow with an immersive real world portrayal of London - plenty of pop culture references used with care - and then completely creeps up on you and hits you like a freight train. Adored this. One of the rare instances where a train journey being delayed for a lifetime didn't feel like one because I was able to get through this in a couple of sittings. Think I have a new favourite author.

Jess is a single mother to two teenage children: star student Hazel on the way to Oxford University and becoming more distant by the day; and lovable, quirky Joseph who is coping brilliantly with his deafness, but struggling to find where he fits in this crazy world. Perhaps life with teenagers is not always easy, especially when she's working six days a week as an outreach worker for a local community theatre group, but Jess is not unhappy with her lot living in Stratford, East London, where she was born and raised - although she wouldn't say no to finding a decent man for a change.

Then her landlord decides he is going to sell the house that is their family home, and Jess is forced to confront the fact that there is no way she can afford to rent anything even half-way decent for them in the same area. As the pressure mounts, Jess starts to drop more and more of the plates she has been frantically spinning, and she finds it impossible to regain control. She begins to realise that her life was not quite as stable as she thought, including her relationship with her children, and their impending homelessness has caused a chain reaction that seems to be gaining momentum. It doesn't help that the shadow of her difficult childhood suddenly starts to loom over her once more when her estranged, and thoroughly reprehensible, older brother reappears on the scene - or that her 'free-spirit' father now needs more care than he's willing to admit.

This is hardly the best time to meet the man that might just be the one she has been looking for - her father's new neighbour, divorced single dad Ben. The timing is all wrong... and so is the fact that bashful Ben has weighty problems of his own, and a secret he daren't confess about his connection to Jess' family.

Where do I start with how wonderful this book is? Through the story of Jess and her children, Luan Goldie examines the housing crisis in London, showing how easy it is for a family to find itself without somewhere affordable to live, and how lives can rapidly spiral downwards once the prospect of homelessness enters the equation.

But that is not all, because there is more than one thread to grab our attention here. We also meet Ben who has returned to live in London following a failed marriage, and is trying to come to terms with the breakdown of his mental health and forced separation from his daughter, while being overwhelmed by memories about his unhappy childhood in Stratford. By chance, he moves in to a flat doors away from Jess' eccentric father Wolf, and meets Jess. The seeds of a tentative romance begin to sprout between them, that could be really special - if only Jess' life wasn't an ever worsening disaster zone, and Ben was able to come clean about his past. Timing is all, and everything seems to be out of kilter right now.

Goldie writes these characters with such skill that they jump off the page right into your heart, and this draws you into a world where the trials and tribulations of modern British life become all encompassing. As the threads of each of their complex stories weave around each other, Goldie nicely covers a lot of insightful ground. Homelessness and what it can lead to is the heart-rending central focus, but she also cleverly intertwines the effects of both inner city decay and gentrification, and highlights how many Londoners are forced out of the city in the search for affordable accommodation.

Along the way, Goldie deftly touches on so much more. Family dynamics and romantic relationships are integral to the story, especially where they have broken down and estrangement results; and we see the legacy of childhood trauma, guilt, and recrimination. And if all this wasn't enough to make this book astonishingly good, loneliness, race, identity, belonging, privilege, false stereotypes, the weight of the unspoken, and the pain of the misspoken all have a big part to play too. Fortunately, there are nuggets of gold amongst all the heartache, which thread the whisper of hope throughout the stories of all the characters, and the whole book thrums with humour, warmth, and love.

I have to make a special point of saying how well Goldie writes about single motherhood though Jess' eyes, and she paints the picture of living with teenagers to perfection. Hazel hits just the right infuriating spot, teetering on the edge of womanhood with a know-it-all, self-absorbed attitude, covering up her vulnerability with a hard as nails outer shell; and Joseph is all endearing, nerdy teenage boy awkwardness, with a great sense of fun, who has no idea how the real world works. I promise you will find that their interactions really resonate if you have lived with teenagers.

This is the kind of book that begs to be lapped up in a single sitting, and I did just that. I adored it from start to finish, marvelling at how Goldie says so much, and with such subtlety, through a cracking story that captivates from the first page to the last. It gives your emotions a proper workout too, not least because this is much more of a romance than I was expecting. My thoughts have been well and truly provoked, and the cockles of my heart nicely warmed - who could ask for more?

An absolutely brilliant novel about Jess, a struggling single mum with two children. When her landlord wants to sell her home she soon finds herself struggling financially and emotionally with so much going on in her life. Jess has to cope with financial difficulties, her children, a wayward brother, an elderly father and a possible new relationship. I found myself totally absorbed in the life of this incredible family. Can’t praise this book enough and highly recommend it.

Single mother struggling against the forces of gentrification. How precarious our lives can be. She loses a low rent house and is made redundant and becomes homeless. Her children struggle to accept the new reality. Meanwhile she meets a new kind man who was bullied by her brother at school.

I enjoyed this book, a duel narrative about two people in the Stratford area of London. It wasn't the book I was expecting as the blurb focuses on homelessness when really it's more of a romance.

A minor criticism is the main character of Jess is too naive to be believable in places. I lived in this area before the London Olympics and everyone was talking about the changes and price increases. She definitely would've had someone say their rent had gone up!
It is good to highlight how a chain of events can tip people into a crisis and how gentrification has positives and negatives. It's a really good depiction of the area and the community and the more gritty areas behind the shiny new things.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.