"Loved One and Consider Yourself Kissed have a lot in common. They both largely take place in London (in the same neighborhood, even); their plots center on women around 30 navigating relationships with men; they're dense with references (mostly pop culture for Loved One, mostly British politics for Consider Yourself Kissed); they both have titles and covers that make them seem like much more light-hearted or frivolous books than they actually are."
"Julia and Coralie are both interesting women; they are smart and kind and, when we meet them, still figuring out their footholds in the world of working adults. Muharrar and Stanley are upfront about their protagonists' main flaws: Julia avoids thinking about the hard stuff, something grief exacerbates; Coralie hates her job, longs to write, puts it off, and never returns to it."
Two novels set in the same London neighborhood follow women around thirty as they navigate relationships, careers, and loneliness. Both books mix romcom elements—nostalgic flashbacks, a divorced father figure, meaningful jewelry—with dense cultural or political references. Each novel ultimately centers on grief: one opens with the protagonist attending the funeral of her longtime best friend Gabe, a musician who slipped in the shower and died; the other presents less immediately defined losses compounded by the protagonist’s severe loneliness after relocating from Australia. Both protagonists are intelligent and kind but hampered by avoidance and procrastination that shape their emotional journeys.
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