Paddy Crewe’s second novel, True Love, follows the nascent relationship of a young couple in the north of England. Bookish Keely is reeling from the death of her brother and turns to drink after her father abandons her. Finn is an outsider who just about survives an adolescence of relentless bullying thanks to his discovery of songwriting. The pair meet outside a pub on a snowy night and fall irreparably in love. 

The main characters are somewhat overwrought, particularly in the early parts. Finn endures ‘the cluttered dark’ of his mind, which invites ‘every spectre’ to torment him; both suffer constantly from an ever-tightening knot in their stomachs. When Keely and Finn finally come together, their hearts thaw and the prose