The one before the one

A contemporary love story told with Katy's inimitable laugh-out-loud humour, poignancy and heart. TO DO LIST: Make something with Quinoa; Pluck eyebrows; Do something 'cultural' every week; Dump married boyfriend. Caroline's life was meant to be sorted when she made the decision to end her engagement, 3 months before the big day. With her to-do list tasks getting crossed off and her career going great guns, Caroline is sure she's now a fully functioning adult. So when her 17 year old half-sister Lexi, arrives unexpectedly at her door, it doesn't quite fit with her image that she's drunk and wearing her wedding dress! Lexi has come to stay for the summer but their relationship is strained, as Lexi is the result of their father's infidelity. An affair that led to the divorce that destroyed Caroline's mother and ruined her own childhood. Needless to say, Caroline is in no hurry to confess her relationship with her married lover Toby. As the summer wears on, Caroline has decisions to make, and a life to reconsider, but surely a 17 year old can't teach her anything about how to live well?

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction, Romance. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.