Lucy arrives in Manhattan horrified that she has had to give up her comfortable life in London for a tiny apartment and an uncertain future with her husband and two young children. Her concerns are shortlived, however, when her mother dies and she has to return to Britain. Vowing to appreciate the life she has, she pours herself wholeheartedly into friendships with three other women she meets at the schoolgates. And we learn about each of them - Christy married to an older man, Julia the workaholic scriptwriter and Robyn the breadwinner and adulterer - in further sections of the book.

Described as a cross between 'Sex and the City' and Bridget Jones, it is light, amusing and feel-good. If you can't spot yourself in any of the character studies, you can still empathise, or smirk knowingly, at the situations. But, to my mind, the book could have done with a little more structure and purpose. I found I was drifting (though undeniably unable to put the book down) in what was, essentially a collection of interconnected short stories. But this is an entertaining and escapist read from the wife of the novelist Joseph O'Connor and the friend of Rosamund Lupton and Rebecca Miller.