The Seven Year Bitch - Jennifer Belle (2010)

According to Joy, Izzy's newly separated best friend, being married for seven years turns you into a nagging bitch. Izzy, who has just reached that milestone, has a one-year-old son Duncan and is feeling resentful that her husband Russell, a book publisher, doesn't contribute more. She's recently been laid off as a hedge fund manager but still goes ahead and appoints a nanny, Shasthi from Guyana. She later becomes caught up with helping her nanny fall pregnant in between judging competition essays. Your interest in and sympathies for Izzy may wax and wane throughout the story. Written like a series of vignettes, I loved the seven-year concept and the insight into lasting less-than-perfect relationships but I just didn't like Izzy at all.

Little Stalker (2007)

One-time wonder author Rebekah Kettle is neurotically obsessed. Not with her latest squeeze Isaac Myman who is a paparazzo or the quirky and annoying gossip columnist Ivy Vohles who wants to be her best bud. She is obsessed with cult filmmaker Arthur Weeman, whom funnily enough her boyfriend resembles. For more than two decades, Rebekah has religiously watched the release of Arthur's films each fall and tracked ever so carefully his movements around New York. While working part-time in her father's medical clinic, Rebekah comes across an elderly patient named Mrs Williams who lives in an Upper East Side apartment across from Arthur's and this offers her a voyeuristic glimpse into her idol's life. Rebekah creates a 13-year-old alter-ego Thalia who writes letters to Arthur detailing her days, thoughts and ideas. As Rebekah starts to discover a new side to her life, she decides to use the letter writing as a basis for her new book. This book has a mixture of sad and funny parts from her annoying and semi-stalking gossip columnist Ivy to her 35-year-old boyfriend wetting the bed. This book will keep you guessing the outcome and hooked to the very last page - and even then you will be surprised. (PP)

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