183 times a year is reportedly the number of times a teenage girl will argue with her mother. For Lizzie – mother of Cassie and Connor and stepmother to Maisy aka Mania – it seems to be far more frequently than that. Told from the viewpoints of both Lizzie and sixteen-year-old Cassie, this novel explores the fraught world of a blended family. Cassie’s dealing with peer pressure, boyfriend issues and an absent father, while her librarian mother is wondering how her life has come down to this. Funny, moving and bittersweet, this debut novel is a real treat.
