The Temp

It's a year since she left university. After six months travelling with chinless boyfriend Matthew, they've ended up in a house owned Sasha's oldest and best friend--and former boy-band sex-god--Ben Cameron, along with layabout Craig, housing advice worker Donna, and city-type Tania, who writes her name on milk cartons, and throws a fit if someone chucks out her flat champagne. "Between us we have notched up five degrees, two careers, one ex-career, three dope habits, two years on the dole and, so far this year, sixteen jobs, fourteen of them done by me."

Alongside hilarious tips and observations on work life--including step-by-step instructions for holidaying PAs on how to make their temporary replacement's life hell and how to get fit by filing inefficiently, thinking and taking up smoking in a non-smoking office--this clever, witty, well-constructed novel also packs in a nail-biting, page-turner of a plot, some shocking and moving bits, revenge, romance and a sly poke at all those trashy novels aimed at twenty-somethings. "Giles or Luke? Penny couldn't decide. All she knew was that being a successful model/editor/advertising executive/film producer/private detective was not proving to be as fulfilling as she had expected. What do you do when you've got everything but all you want is love?". --Lisa Gee