Published by Head of Zeus 

Take an intelligent, hardworking woman with a successful career surrounded by a doting husband, beautiful young daughter and all the material trappings anyone could reasonably wish for and you have all the ingredients for a perfect life – right? Wrong – especially when there is another love involved. And when that other love is so great, so alluring, so addictive and so destructive it overrides all rational thought and even the welfare of your own child, it is immediately apparent how caustic and far-reaching such a love can be.

Romilly, quiet, studious and less pretty than her beautiful twin sisters – at least in her eyes – meets David, a fellow student at university. David, gorgeous and popular is well out of Romily’s league “for she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that boys like David Wells didn’t fall in love with bookish, ginger-haired, spectacle-wearing girls like her.” Only, much to Romilly’s surprise, he does. On their first date, Romilly decides she needs a little Dutch courage – just to help calm her nerves. And she isn’t fussy, anything will do, “she needed something to give her confidence, anything that might loosen her tongue and enable her to shine a little in front of this beautiful boy.”

Their friendship blossoms into love, eventually leading to marriage and the birth of their beautiful daughter, Celeste. But, despite a successful career as a scientist, her loving husband, her beautiful daughter and her wonderful house, Romilly continues to reach for the bottle – to manage a visit from her opinionated mother in law, to manage work – to manage life in general. Only, as with most addictions, one glass of wine leads to one bottle, leads to several bottles, leads to many bottles.

Narrated through the voices of Romilly and her daughter, Celeste, Amanda Prowse does a brilliant job of demonstrating the destructive and far-reaching effects alcohol addiction has, not only on the life of the addict themselves but on friends and family too. However, although Prowse doesn’t sugar-coat the consequences of this devastating illness she nonetheless manages to tell it with great empathy. Another Love is definitely one I’d recommended.