Mandy Byatt’s second novel, The Younger Woman is out now!
February is all about love… hearts, chocolates, soppy cards, flowers, perhaps a meal out or a weekend away if we’re lucky. But it can also be a time of musing over failed love affairs, of wishing that the person we long to be with longs to be with us too.
Like my first novel, The Younger Woman is about the dark ways that love can manifest itself – envy, distrust, obsession, revenge – and how even the perfect relationship can go disastrously wrong. Happily-married Lottie begins to suspect that her husband, Nick, is attracted to the new starter at his firm, a woman who is the spitting image of a younger, more attractive Lottie. Are Lottie’s suspicions unfounded, or does the younger woman have her sights set on Nick?
February is also my birthday month, and The Younger Woman starts with a weekend away to the family holiday cottage to celebrate Nick’s birthday. He’s unaware that he’s about to get the best birthday present he could wish for – Lottie, after many failed IVF attempts, is pregnant. What Lottie doesn’t realise though is that she’s about to get a surprise too… when she goes down to the cellar she finds the body of a young woman, a young woman who looks just like her…
I hope that you enjoy my second novel and I hope that February is filled with love for you. Love comes in many forms, of course – love for our families and friends, love for our pets (I couldn’t be without my ginger tomcat, Trevor!), love for ourselves and our passions. I’m guessing that, like me, reading is one of your passions. I have lots of novels on my birthday wish list, and with its cold, dark nights, February is the perfect month to curl up with a good book.
I hope you enjoy reading The Younger Woman!
Mandy x
