We've reviewed some of the best new debut novels of 2019

If you're in that in-between phase, waiting impatiently for your favourite established author to release their next tome, or are just on the lookout for a few new writers to bolster your bookcase, look no further.

These debut authors are on the up – get on the same page now...

Devotion by Madeline Stevens (Faber & Faber, £6.99)

Sensual, obsessive, unsettling, Devotion is a meandering tour of toxic female friendship. There's more than a hint of Single White Female in the relationship between Ella – cash-strapped and alone – and Lonnie – rich and beautiful, with the perfect young family. As the two women's lives converge, the boundaries between their individual selves become blurred by jealousy and desire.

Ella's fixation with a local serial killer, as well as her obsession with cataloguing Lonnie's possessions and hoarding her personal keepsakes – including childhood photos and baby teeth – create a sinister undercurrent to the seemingly perfect life in privileged Manhattan. There are no sudden twists or shocking turns in Devotion, but a sense of unease permeates throughout, as though at any moment tragedy might strike.

Shelf Life by Livia Franchini (Doubleday, £12.99)

Shelf Life – from London-based, Tuscany-born, author Livia Franchini – begins with the end of Ruth and Neil's 10-year relationship. Franchini uses their final shopping list together to tell the demise of their union, with the help of teenage chatroom logs and wildly inappropriate emails to colleagues.

Ruth, the central character, is a complex and vulnerable 30-year-old nurse, who viscerally articulates her heartache. It is impossible not to be moved as she plainly explains the intricacies of her failed relationship and everything that led her to this point. Franchini's writing isn't overblown, sentimental or pretentious, it is a modern story told in a modern way.

The Truants by Kate Weinberg (Bloomsbury, £8.68)

Kate Weinberg confidently combines literary suspense and deftly executed narrative, slowly unravelling each thread that tangles first-love, obsession and the boundaries of self-identity. A first-year university student in search of a personality, Jess is primed to be drawn under the spell of her professor's rock-star presence. Jostling for her place amongst her friends – a band of misfits and rule-breakers, comprised of Alec, a South African journalist and teller of dark stories; Georgie, a wealthy and beguiling teenage aristocrat; and Nick, a solid-as-a-rock geology student, Jess battles to find – and follow – her own moral compass.

As relationships unfold and dramas manifest, Jess quickly finds herself overwhelmed by desire and tragedy. The Truants is as charismatic as the characters within. Packing a punch with plenty of references to Agatha Christie, and echoes of Donna Tartt's The Secret History, its hefty foreshadowing and abundance of twists keeps the reader tripping forwards.

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott (Hutchinson, £12.99)

US author Lara Prescott delves into the Cold War world of CIA involvement in distributing Russian literary heavyweight Boris Pasternak's Dr Zhivago, banned in the Soviet Union – seen as "not just a book, but a weapon". From 1949, The Secrets We Kept covers the next decade by alternating from East to West, following both Pasternak and his muse as well as the women in the CIA typing pool, particularly spy-in-training Irina and part-time receptionist and agent provocateur Sally.

Slightly slow to start, the novel then draws the reader into the emotional lives of the characters and their ever-changing roles and personas, questioning not only what is banned in the East, but also in the West. No mere spy thriller, it is, as the typists say of Dr Zhivago, both "a war story and a love story... but it was the love story we remembered most".

Say Say Say by Lila Savage (Serpent's Tail, £12.99)

Ella is used to her job as a care worker, but every person and family she works with teaches her something new – and when she takes a job supporting Bryn, a retired carpenter, care for his wife Jill who has a devastating brain injury, some profound lessons about love, desire and identity are in store. Approaching 30 and navigating the evolution of her own relationship with her girlfriend Alix, spending time with Bryn and Jill prompts reflection and confusion, as Ella finds herself questioning the sometimes blurred boundaries between friendship, sexual desire, kindness and duty.

Though the themes sound somewhat deep, Say Say Say is the sort of book you can comfortably sink into. It has the sensitivity and insight of somebody who's lived in this world and knows it first-hand (Savage spent nearly a decade working as a caregiver in the US before taking up fiction writing), which really gives the book its heart. Her observations are honest yet compassionate; however much you can relate to Ella, you'll be right there with her.