The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes (Penguin)

by Patrick O'Connor

BE warned – this British road rom-com is as soppy as hell. But it's a delight, a lovely, heart-warming, life-enhancing love story which will captivate you from beginning to end.

The plot is relatively simple. Single mum Jess Thomas is struggling to keep her head above water; her teenage stepson Nicky is a loner who is being bullied at school and daughter Tanzie is a maths prodigy who is offered the chance to compete in a Math Olympiad at the other end of the country.