Holly Bourne’s dark and twisted whodunnit revolves around four friends – Nicki, Lauren, Charlotte and Steffi – as they reunite for the baby shower from hell. When everything quite literally goes up in flames, though, it’s left unclear who started the fire… or why.

As the narrative shifts between police interviews, flashbacks and social media posts, tensions between the women rise, each grappling with their own complex relationship to motherhood, from the happily (and unhappily) child-free to those struggling to juggle the demands of family life.

The result? A searing tale about the enormous toll that parenthood can have on our friendships and one which is sure to resonate with all who read it.

Shop So Thrilled For You by Holly Bourne at Bookshop, £16.14

A memoir unlike any other, Sarah Hoover’s powerful piece on maternal identity shines an unflinching light on her first year of motherhood – from the soaring highs to the crushing lows. Expect to find solace in her account of her own mental health struggles and the overwhelming nature of new parenthood, as well as the societal pressures that shape her experience.

Shop The Motherload by Sarah Hoover at Bookshop, £19

Delving into themes of maternal identity, this novel tells the story of Florence Grimes, a 31-year-old former pop star and single mum with a habit of making bad decisions – but she doesn’t count her 10-year-old son, Dylan, among them. She loves him to bits. Often, he’s the only reason she has to get out of bed each morning. 

When Dylan’s bully mysteriously vanishes during a class trip, her kid becomes the number one suspect (hell, even Florence thinks he might have done it). Cue a renewed sense of purpose for our hot mess of a protagonist; she’s going to find Alfie, clear her son’s name and get life back on track – even if she a) has zero investigative skills whatsoever and b) all the other mothers hate her guts.

A deliciously fun and twisty tale that’ll keep you guessing until the very end.

Shop All The Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman at Bookshop, £16.24

What would you do if you were unexpectedly handed £20,000? The narrator of this autofictional tale decides to blow it all on a road trip from LA to New York – only to stop the car 30 miles into her journey. There, in a nothingy little town called Monrovia, she books a cheap motel room and blows all of her cash on redesigning it… while beginning an almost obsessive affair with a gauche garage attendant and one of his ex-lovers.

What follows is a voyage of self-discovery – one which deals with birth trauma, perimenopausal demons and the death-in-life that women fear when they run out of oestrogen. Including hormone replacement therapy, progesterone pills, intimate selfies and body-rooted sex scenes, our narrator does all she can to make the most of the time she fears she has left. But how will her A Room Of One’s Own-inspired fantasy impact her relationship with her husband and child?

Shop All Fours by Miranda July at Bookshop, £9.49

As tense as it is electrifying, this unputdownable memoir begins as Helen Jukes struggles to come to terms with the changes going on inside her body when she becomes pregnant. In a desperate bid to make sense of it all, she looks to the likes of polar bears, spiders and burrowing beetles to expand her notion of ‘mothering’ – and shuns the patriarchal narrative that pollutes our understanding of what it is to carry and birth a baby.

All in all, an honest and unflinching portrayal of the transition to motherhood and the way it reshapes not just your life, but your sense of self.

Shop Mother Animal by Helen Jukes at Bookshop, £16.14

If you grew up reading Jacqueline Wilson’s Girls In Love series, then you’ll absolutely want to sink your teeth into her latest tome, which features Ellie, Nadine and Magda as adults on the cusp of 40.

As ever, it focuses the spotlight on Ellie, who’s found that her life has turned out very different from the one she imagined for herself when she was 14. She’s a single mum, desperately missing her daughter now she’s disappeared off to uni, and she’s basically on autopilot… until a chance meeting sets her on a new and unexpected adventure.

Come for the nostalgia, stay for the bittersweetness that comes with growing up and letting go, and cross your fingers that there’s a sequel on the way.

Shop Think Again by Jacqueline Wilson at Bookshop, £9.49

If you prefer your fiction to come with a healthy dollop of thrills and chills, try this Misery-esque number on for size. Tegan is eight months pregnant when she crashes her car in the middle of a blizzard. Thankfully, a kindly couple rescues her from the side of the road and whisks her away to their cabin so that she can wait out the storm. But (you guessed it) she quickly comes to realise that they’re not all they seem to be.

Just how far, though, will Tegan go to protect her unborn child?

Shop The Crash by Frieda McFadden at Bookshop, £9.49

On the surface, this novel is all about a marriage that spans decades. The love story that the title refers to, though, isn’t necessarily that of Jane and Abe – who met and fell hard for one another in the heady days of 1960s New York City – but of Jane and her son, Max.

She’s seriously ill and keen to look back on their past together. He, now a grown man, still adamantly believes that his high-achieving mother chose art over parenthood. Jessica Soffer’s tale explores the profound connections between a mother and her child, highlighting the sacrifices, challenges, and unparalleled joys that define that relationship.

Be sure to keep a box of tissues handy…

Shop This Is A Love Story by Jessica Soffer at Bookshop, £16.14 

It’s not exactly new, but the starry adaptation of the third book in the Bridget Jones series is in cinemas this month, which means it’s definitely a good time to give it a read (or a reread).

The divisive novel sees our beloved Bridget juggle her role as a single mum to two small children while negotiating a whole new sexual and cultural landscape – which means it delves deep into all the ways motherhood can often feel isolating, exhausting, and full of surprises. All with Helen Fielding’s signature wit, no less.

Shop Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding at Bookshop, £9.49