Marrying Up - Wendy Holden (2011)

Alexa, formerly known as plain old Allison, desperately wants to marry well. But from a working class background, she's got her gold-digging work cut out for her, especially now she's flunked out of St Andrews (where Kate bagged Prince William). Society It Girl Florrie, meanwhile, has already been linked to royalty - but despite her mother Lady Annabel's ambitions, is just a girl who wants to have fun. Polly is an archaeology student, who falls for young vet Max after meeting him on a dig. But it seems he is hiding his own impressive foundations. As the three women's lives converge, it seems Alexa will do anything to win the title fight. This is a funny story about envy and entitlement, snobbery and social climbing. Taking a dig at an aristocratic society full of quadruple-barrelled names, this type of satire is what Holden does best.

Wendy Holden is back with her 13th novel, Marrying Up, about a woman who will stop at nothing, to get everything. The summary says: "Scheming social climber Alexa may be humbly born. But she's a class-hopping cruise missile aimed at the very top of the gold-digging tree. Only a title, mansion and family tiara will do. Befriending feckless aristo Florrie (three surnames plus black hole where her brain should be) means the grandest doors swing open and the prince of her dreams is in sight. But has Florrie's mother, the formidable Lady Annabel, rumbled what Alexa is up to? Beautiful but penniless student Polly, meanwhile, is in love. Is Max, the handsome young vet she's found in a country lane, quite as ordinary as he seems, however? Passionate love, eye-widening snobbery and more than naked ambition abound in this contemporary Cinderella tale - a deliciously satirical novel of the upwardly mobile." Marrying Up is out in July.

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