Four new books to read this week

Ordinary Love manages to be both incredibly sexy and saturated with a sense of foreboding.

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Ordinary Love

By Marie Rutkoski, hardback £16.99 (ebook £9.99)

Sweethearts Emily and Gen fall in love while running for their school's track team, then years later, lock eyes at a party in New York. Emily's broken marriage and her steps towards creating a life of her own, as well as Gen's 2012 Olympic hopes, slide out of focus as they wonder if first love can be rehabilitated. The foreboding comes in the form of Jack, Emily's grotesquely wealthy, coercive husband.

The only shard of the story that doesn’t ring true is Emily and Gen's ceaseless capacity to misunderstand one another. Otherwise, Ordinary Love is really quite transcendent. 9/10

Births, Deaths & Marriages

By Laura Barnett hardback £16.99 (ebook £8.99)