'Jessica Andrews's first novel, Saltwater, was wonderful. The follow-up, Milk Teeth, is even better' Alex Preston, Observer

'Unusually raw . . . so honest and hopeful' Financial Times

A lush and intimate love story from the award-winning author of Saltwater

A girl grows up in the north-east of England amid scarcity, precarity and a toxic culture of bodily shame,certain that she must make herself ever smaller to be loved.

Years later, living in tiny rented rooms and working in noisy bars across London and Paris, she fights to create her own life. She meets someone who cracks her open and offers her a new way to experience the world. But when he invites her to join him in Barcelona, the promise of pleasure and care makes her uneasy. In the shimmering heat of the Mediterranean, she faces the possibility of a different existence, and must choose what to hold on to from her past.

How do we learn to take up space? Why might we deny ourselves good things? Milk Teeth is a story of desire and the body, shame and joy. In vivid and lyrical prose, and with deep compassion, Jessica Andrews examines what it means to allow ourselves to live.

'Addictive, immediate, brilliant' Helen Mort

'Milk Teeth spills over with care, truth and desire' Yara Rodrigues Fowler

'A sharp and beguiling love story . . . Milk Teeth is a transporting, gorgeous novel' Independent

"Jessica Andrews's first novel, Saltwater, was wonderful. The follow-up, Milk Teeth, is even better. A story of young love and desire that's full of the most gorgeous writing." - Observer

"Andrews's sentences are like plum puddings. Rich. Satisfying. And she often uses verbs - spill, split, bleed, leaks - that suggest a messy life. Our heroine does have a messy life - don't we all - but it's presented here in a way that sees truth pouring off every page." - The Crack

"Jessica Andrews' arresting account of obsessive young love and anxiety, Milk Teeth, more than fulfils the promise of her debut, Saltwater" - Daily Mail

"As for a new book that I'm excited about, Jessica Andrews' Milk Teeth - her follow-up to award-winning debut novel Saltwater - would have to be it. Lyrical prose, sticky Mediterranean heat and vivid descriptions make this coming-of-age story transporting, sensual and completely addictive. Themes of loneliness, belonging, identity and love - and how we're ultimately deserving of it - will both break and warm your heart. A must for fans of Sally Rooney." - Net-a-Porter

"Milk Teeth examines what it means to allow ourselves to live." - SheerLuxe

"Across its blissfully sprawling passages detailing scenes from different cities, what anchors the novel is its exploration of how hunger, class, desire and gender are interlaced . . . In Saltwater Andrews sought a voice that is her own, something she has truly settled into in Milk Teeth. Addressed in second person to the narrator's lover, the writing is gilded with a vulnerable immediacy, blisteringly honest and visceral. Andrews, already lauded, has come into her own." - Irish Times

"There aren't many high-quality novels for adults that pay serious attention to eating disorders . . . so it's good to find Andrews writing with such precision . . . Andrews's writing style is sensual . . . consuming and sexy." - The Times

"This confidence in her material - in placing centre stage a young, unnamed northern woman living a precarious existence but struggling to carve out more space for herself - makes her work reminiscent of Gwendoline Riley . . . unusually raw . . . so honest and hopeful." - Financial Times

"An experience akin to having the hue and saturation slider of your mind moved to maximum . . . a brilliantly hopeful book" - Caught by the River

"Astute, gut-wrenching...For a novel that is so sharp and often written with such linguistic utility, it isn't at all sparse. Despite these moments in which the narration is given the control that the narrator so desires, this novel is full. In fact, fittingly, one might say it has real weight." - Lunate

"A transporting, visceral second novel... a sizzling novel to read in the heat, when you're hungry for life." - Lucy Writers Platform

"A sensual and languid love story." - Refinery29

"A tide of sharply sensuous detail keeps the reader riveted as the book flows by in a series of candidly recounted episodes sustained by voice rather than plot. Andrews takes aim at the cultural pressures shaping unhealthy ideals of femininity without ever seeming to preach." - Daily Mail

"A sharp and beguiling love story . . . languid, elegantly written and dripping with a rich emotional humidity . . . Milk Teeth is a transporting, gorgeous novel" - Independent

"I liked it very much . . . the language, the prose, is very rich . . . there was a melody to it, I found myself reading passages aloud as if there was a poetry to it." - BBC Radio 4 Front Row

"Andrews' prose is distinctly stylised. It possesses a heightened sensuality which reflects the protagonist's aspiration to live fiercely, "like lightning" - free of restraint . . . Milk Teeth possesses a highly charged and often deliberately uncomfortable intimacy." - i

"Andrews's lyrical prose overflows with sweet metaphors and sensuous imagery that . . . remains somehow addictive." - New Statesman

"An intimate love story . . . Lazy comparisons to Sally Rooney don't do Andrews' unique writing style justice. Milk Teeth is a must-read." - Reaction.Life

"Poignant" - Daily Mail