Lizzie Jordan Books in Order

The Lizzie Jordan books are early Manby, fast, comic and very tuned in to the panic of trying to look more grown-up than you feel. This is a short series, really a linked pair of novels, built around one heroine whose best skill is often improvising her way out of a mess she created five minutes earlier. If you like romantic comedies driven by embarrassment, lies and last-minute plans, Lizzie is very much your person.

In Lizzie Jordan's Secret Life, she is several years out of university and not feeling like a success story. Her friends seem to have careers, money and direction. Lizzie has a dull job, a bad flat and a boyfriend she is not exactly thrilled by. The problem is that she has kept up a glamorous fake version of her life in emails to Brian, an old American boyfriend who did become impressive. When he announces he is coming to visit, the whole book turns into a scramble to keep fantasy and reality from colliding.

That setup tells you most of what the series does well. Lizzie is not cool, and that is the point. She wants to be admired. She wants life to feel special. She is bright, funny and capable of huge effort, but she often spends that effort protecting an image instead of solving the real problem. The comedy comes from watching her double down, then double down again, long after a sensible person would confess.

Running Away from Richard throws her into a different but related kind of chaos. Here the action moves toward Venice Beach and Hollywood, where Lizzie is suddenly dealing with a broken plan, a terrible living situation and a fake engagement that is asking for trouble. The scale gets bigger, but the emotional core stays the same. Lizzie keeps chasing the version of adulthood she thought she would have, while real life keeps handing her something much messier.

Lizzie is funny because she is always half a step from disaster.

The tone of these books is broad, lively and affectionate. Manby likes outrageous situations, but she keeps Lizzie human. Under the madcap plotting is a very familiar worry: what if everyone else has worked out how to be a proper adult and you are still bluffing? That makes the series feel bigger than its comic setups might suggest. The lies are silly, but the insecurity underneath them is not.

Setting helps, too. London gives the first book its cramped, post-university stress, while the second opens out into a brighter, stranger version of American dream-making. In both cases, Lizzie is surrounded by people who seem more certain, richer or more glamorous than she is. That pressure is what keeps her performing. These are not dark books. The stakes are humiliation, heartbreak, money trouble, career confusion and the danger of fooling yourself for too long. But Manby gets a lot out of those stakes, and the Lizzie Jordan novels are a good snapshot of her early talent for turning social panic into story.