Thank you to NetGalley and Joffe Books for this ARC.

When Fiona Ormeroyd was 30, life as she knew it collapsed for her. At the same time as she learnt that her husband Rob was a gambler she also suffered a miscarriage. They lost the house and divorced but something in Fiona closed off.

She is now 60, financially independent, lives in her own house and has just retired, when her boyfriend Joe who she keeps at arms length and sees once a week, moves in with her without warning due to a problem with his flat. His pregnant daughter Adele follows soon after. 

Gone are her carefully controlled days of blissful solitude and breakfasting with best friend Meeko (a nickname of Michael) at the hotel he works as a yoga teacher. Now there is tension and chaos and Joe expecting cooked meals. Suddenly she has family dynamics to manage, Rob reappears and Meeko misunderstands an overheard conversation.

I found Joe a walking red flag. The way he just moves in without asking then expects Fiona to be a housewife and constantly compares her to his ex-wife Rose -  I would have kicked that dead weight out way sooner than Fiona did! Thankfully Fiona's mother Dorothea who lives in a retirement complex is also not very fond of Joe and tries to push her and Meeko together. Their slow-burn was excruciatingly slow!

My heart went out to Fiona, having her peaceful retirement plans upended like that, but it was also good to see her slowly letting people back into her life. Rob had terminated her trust in men, but it's been thirty years and Adele brings feelings to the forefront about Fiona's lost pregnancy that she has to confront.

This is a well-written heartwarming later-in-life friends to lovers story about love, loss, unexpected friendships and beginning again that is uplifting and full of emotional depth and reminds you that it is never too late to change your life.