Bad Boy Jack Cox, Josephine

Jack is seventeen, wild, and utterly unmanageable. He's been expelled from school, he's out all night, and his single mother is at breaking point. So she sends him to his estranged father in rural France — a man Jack barely knows. What follows is a summer of tension, grudging reconciliation, and the slow unraveling of family secrets. Josephine Cox writes working-class British life with unflinching honesty, and this one tackles the messy, painful reality of absent fathers and angry sons. It's not sentimental — Cox doesn't do soft landings — but it's deeply human. For readers who like their family dramas raw and their characters flawed, this is a solid choice. Pairs well with Jojo Moyes' grittier work or anything by Sheila O'Flanagan.