Mother, writer, worker, sister, friend, citizen, daughter, (sort of) wife. If she could be one, perhaps she could manage. Trying to be all, she found she was none.
Coralie grew up in Australia but needed to escape some ghosts. Adrift in London, she meets witty, sexy, generous Adam—and his charming four-year-old daughter. Falling in love is fun. And then?
Coralie yearns for children of her own, and to become a writer. But her trips back to Australia change her perspective. Ten years on, something essential is missing.
In this unforgettable story about what ‘happily ever after’ might truly mean, Jessica Stanley writes about life as we live it, and reveals how our intimate dramas can get tangled up with the public events of our times.
An honest, entertaining and intelligent portrait of a woman in love, Consider Yourself Kissed will capture your heart.
andConsider Yourself Kissed
‘Consider Yourself Kissed is a love story like no other: charming, warm, heartfelt and funny but with a truly razor-like authenticity. I absolutely loved every moment and didn’t want it to end!’
‘Consider Yourself Kissed is that rare thing: a novel that truly lives up to the hype.’
’This summer’s must-read … A sparkly enjoyable romantic comedy like One Day and Normal People’
‘Buy this for yourself and then buy a few more copies for everyone you know.’
‘Fresh and sparkling…This charming literary romance queries the endgame in romance fiction, the happily-ever-after, in a way that lingers.’
‘Consider Yourself Kissed is a smart literary love story and an absorbing family drama. Jessica Stanley follows her characters over the years as they make their way in the private, intricate, fragile world they create for themselves, and in the always-changing larger world. This is a deeply appealing and winning novel.’
‘Fabulous…It’s clever, joyful, familiar and awkward, and so funny.’
‘Sweet and tender.’
‘Utterly brilliant—so astonishingly clever, but with a core of love. It’s generous, it’s hopeful, it’s one of the very best grown-up love stories I have ever read. And wears its smartness so lightly, but it captures the strangeness of the past few years perfectly. I could not have adored it more.’
‘Jessica Stanley’s principal subject is romance, which she renders—in all its mess and glory—masterfully. But the real delight in Consider Yourself Kissed is how the novel confidently thinks about love more broadly: the feeling we can have for family, for work, for art and books and our homes and our friends, for the very world around us. It is an exhilarating read, a marvel of a book.’
‘A clever and funny rom-com in the vein of Dolly Alderton’s Good Material, Consider Yourself Kissed shows how relationships have to change to find an equitable balance for both partners.’
‘Balances literary depth and a breezy, engaging style, making Consider Yourself Kissed the elusive next Sorrow and Bliss… delivering a loveable, compelling novel about what it means to be a woman today.’
‘Deeply romantic…Funny, familiar and relatable.’
‘A delightfully grounded romance and a treasure … very human.’
’Suffused with wonder and joy.’
‘As warm as a David Nicholls novel.’
‘Fresh and original… a brilliant book that hits all the right notes’
‘Charming… with quiet ingenuity and compassion’
‘5 stars. This book is a triumph.’
