This is fundamentally a simple heterosexual romantic "love story". That is, boy meets girl by quirk of fate, a misunderstanding leads to them separating, boy desperately searches for girl, boy finds girl and begs forgiveness but is apparently rejected, girl decides that he's right for her after all and surprises the boy by turning up on his doorstep. Presumably they live happily ...for a while, at least, if not ever after.

What this book has going for it that a Mills & Boon romance doesn't have is another, perhaps more interesting story underlying the romance. This underlying story is one of an Italian family in Scotland, focusing on the two sisters, one of whom is the "girl" in the romance. It looks at how isolating it can be to be from a different culture to the one in which you live. Further, the issue of disability is added to that cultural conflict, together with unresolved feelings of guilt left over from childhood. This last issue is probably the most interesting (for me), and yet receives the least attention. What a shame.

It's a reasonably long book but is quite easy reading, and would be ideal to read while traveling on a plane and heading for a new and different culture. In fact, the edition I read is called the "airport/export" edition!! ( )

This is another great read from Maggie, which is similar in form to her first book, After You'd Gone. It's partly a love story, but mainly a story about family.. and sisters in particular.

At the beginning of the book we are introduced to the main characters. Jake is living in Hong Kong, finding himself caught in crush on News Years Eve, and what happens after that brings him to England. Stella sees someone she thinks she recognises, which sparks some memory in her, and sends her running to Scotland.

From here, we meet various other characters, including both families. Maggie also takes us to various time settings, exploring not only Stella and Jake's childhood, but their parents history too.

These strands gradually start to wind together, as the story evolves.. history and present coming together, as Jake and Stella come together too.

This kind of story telling could very easily be confusing, especially to someone like me, who gets lost very easily, and yet it doesn't. The developments of the past gradually add to the present story, until everything comes together.

The characters are believable, and Maggie's writing is down to earth, whilst flowing well. I found myself wanting to keep reading, whilst not wanting it to end! ( )