No love lost | 31 July 2010

There is chick lit, or witless, ill-written, juvenile popular fiction, and then there is superior chick lit, which is smart and amusing and written for grown ups. Both these novels fall into the latter category, both are second books by well-regarded journalists and both are worth taking into the garden or on the plane this summer.

Lucy Kellaway of the Financial Times stays in the office, where her first hilarious satire of corporate life and the pompous executive male, Martin Lukes: Who Moved My Blackberry? was located. This time, her target is the tragi-comedy of the office affair, and revolves around the ill-judged but irresistible romantic adventures of two women, Stella, the office star, and Bella, the office beauty.

Stella is in her early forties, slim and blonde and the top woman at Atlantic Energy, a global oil company. She has a nice husband who is less successful than she is and takes her for granted, and two children; she loves them, but her work is the most exciting thing in her life.

Kellaway, who knows the City well, manages the considerable feat of making the dramas at Atlantic authentic as well as amusing, as Stella negotiates egomaniacs and backstabbers and endures endless turgid presentations and meetings on her way to her seat on the board.

The last thing she needs is a dangerous, obsessive romance with a new recruit with bitten nails and a chip on his shoulder. Rhys is clever, driven and nearly 20 years younger; Stella knows the affair is madness, but his admiration beguiles her and the sex is spectacular. The risks to her family and her job terrify her, but add to the thrill; she is soon hooked.

Meanwhile down the corridor the gorgeous dark-haired Bella, a single mother in her twenties, finds herself drawn into an equally risky and hopeless romance with her fortyish boss, James.