LIONESS
Emily Perkins, Bloomsbury, $32.99
It’s a messy novel with moments of greatness. Here’s what happened before the story begins: Therese grew up in Wellington and she was what market analysts call a C-minus. Not well educated. However, she meets Trevor, who is more than 20 years older than she. They fall in love and marry. Trevor has an ex-wife and three children who – on the brink of middle age when we meet them 30 years later – are poisonous brats.
Therese chooses not to have kids and would be out on the margins were it not for Trevor’s gift to her: Therese Thorne Homewares. He bankrolls a chain of boutiques stocked with luxury items bought by trendsetters and also by nobodies – an exquisite travel wallet which will never hold a passport let alone a
