Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus are responsible for creating the one chick-lit character that I can still remember more than ten years after ‘meeting’ him. That character was Harvard Hottie, the romantic interest in The Nanny Diaries.  I’d be hard pressed to name characters from any other book I read in 2002 so why did Harvard Hottie stay in my mind? Perhaps because my friends and I had code names for various boys at the time (TNA, The Barry St Boy…). The authors knew their audience and whilst I was not a nanny on Park Avenue in New York, there was enough in The Nanny Diaries to identify with.

McLaughlin and Kraus still know their audience and more importantly, they know that their audience has grown-up. And that we worry about middle-aged things. And like they did in their previous books, they deliver the perfect balance of drama, glamour and humour in their latest, How to Be a Grown-up. Continue reading →