Have you ever wondered what might have happened if you had done things differently, taken that job abroad, studied harder or married your first love? Well in Terry Tyler’s new novella, “Round and Round,” heroine Sophie does just that. As she approaches her dreaded 40th birthday she looks back sixteen years and wonders whether she made the right choices.

I warmed to Sophie very quickly. She is trying to make the best of her life but indecision in the past and the loss of her greatly loved Aunt Flick cause her to question her way of life. Looking back to 1998 when she had lost weight and made advances in her career, it seemed as though she would have a golden future but there were four men in her life and she couldn’t choose between them.

But this is not a lightweight romance. The story is set in the modern world, with concerns about career, home and family. Sophie’s mother Alana is an embittered, abandoned woman who wants her daughter to settle down with a reliable man. In contrast Flick is a woman of the 1960s who talks about karma and auras. She takes Sophie to the Angel tree, a special place where all cares disappear and life seems clearer.
The four suitors; cheerful, affectionate Chris, handsome, artistic Seb, carefree Kieran and Neil, the friend who shares her interest in the theatre, are believable, well-drawn characters who gradually change over time as their lives progress. Sophie is not naturally
promiscuous, she is aware that each of them offer her the possibility of a happy, fulfilling future and she doesn’t want to hurt any of them; or herself.

What makes this book different is the way in which alternative life paths are shown. It raises the question, are we entirely responsible for the way our life turns out? And if things go wrong can we do something about it? Of course a little bit of magic or help from a guardian angel is always useful.
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