Dawn O’Porter is the queen of in-your-face novels. Throughout her books she’s tackled many subjects few others would dare (remember the train scene in So Lucky?) and her latest novel is no exception.

Several years after the last instalment of Renée and Flo, they’re back in Guernsey after a few years of widening their horizons off-island. Neither of them are in a great place in their lives, and they haven’t talked for a long time - but circumstances are about to throw them back together and it’s going to get messy.

The book explores some really difficult subjects - alcoholism, grief, career difficulties, family breakdown - and yet it’s not as bleak as it sounds. It is uncomfortable though. Like, I full-body cringed reading some scenes, because O’Porter takes some of the worst turning-up-naked-to-take-an-exam-you-haven’t-studied-for nightmares and puts them down onto the page like she isn’t just destroying any peace of mind you will ever have again.

It’s the humour and the humanity that makes the book, though. The author adds just enough of each to stem the tide of awfulness and avoid overwhelm. Everything that happens to Renée or Flo feels like something that could happen to any of us - maybe just not all of it at once!

Mostly the girls’ stories are about that weird period in your early 20s when you’re grown up to have finished full-time education, to live on your own and support yourself, but when most of us are not quite old enough to have the first clue how to actually be an adult with any measure of success. Even if I suspect I’d have more in common with the boring homebody background characters than either Renée or Flo, I related to many of their worries.

O’Porter grew up on Guernsey and she talks of the island with such warmth and fondness that I’d really love to travel there. Her exploration of what - and who - constitutes home goes right to the heart of not just Renée and Flo’s stories, but the reader’s also. Overall a brilliant addition to the series, and a big leap in maturity too.