Jo and Harry are both recently single. Harry has an 18-year old daughter from a one-night stand long before he was married when he was a major part of a rock band. He is now a divorcing marketing consultant, recently back from America. Jo designs greeting cards and runs the growing business. As she divorces Tom she decides to have a one-night stand, her first, and then settled down to motherhood with a child via a donor. Her one right stand is Harry. Naturally they fall in love. In lust first for the early part of the book is drenched in sex where their pasts and family histories are revealed to us. This all happens in Harry’s weekend haven in Shropshire’s wilds; wonderful country, folk and local pub. No phone, no TV, no mobile signal, ‘no baggage’ and all that is said and done there remains in the cottage. Idyllic, but we actually meet the couple as their marriage is falling apart. So we learn of their romance, passion and life over the annual weekends spent in Harry’s cottage. A lovely scenario similar in many ways to David Nicholls’ One Day. This is actually a very real story of dying love. Darker than is the norm for this author and refreshingly ambiguous in its ending. A great read. ~ Sarah Broadhurst
Can your final fling become your Happy Ever After? When Jo Coulson finds herself single again in her late thirties, she finally resigns her membership to Last of the Hopeless Romantics, fully intending to tackle midlife and motherhood alone. First, she plans one legendary last fling...In walks Harry Inchbold, and the connection is electric. Passionate, unpredictable and messily divorced, Harry is the perfect antidote to cosy coupledom. Known as The Sinner, drama follows him around with a clapper board. Harry's favourite holiday hideaway in the wilds of South Shropshire puts the mud and fun into the perfect dirty weekend. But at the cottage Harry reveals a very different side, melting Jo's resolve. What better combination to face an uncertain future than two cynics who have learned from their mistakes?Together they make a pact; 'same time next year'; they can promise no more than that. Through life's most stressful decade, Harry and Jo return to the Shropshire hills for one weekend each year to rediscover passion and make peace. As career, family and home crises all threaten to bring them unstuck, the cottage is their glue. Here, different rules apply: the day to day world is not allowed to intrude.With Harry and Jo, however, it's only a matter of time before rules get broken. As real life gets increasingly complicated, can they keep renewing their promise?
'Fans of Jilly Cooper will enjoy this summery, romantic romp. Hugely enjoyable fun' Sunday Mirror
Author
About Fiona Walker
Fiona Walker, whose novels have been Sunday Times bestsellers, leads the field as the voice of young, media-aware women. She lives in Somerset with her partner and two children plus an assortment of horses and dogs.
