Always and Only You

Fiona Lucas

GETTING married was supposed to be day one of Erin’s perfect life with long-time love Simon... so why is the wrong bridegroom waiting for her at the end of the church aisle?

Immerse yourself in a wonderfully offbeat and unforgettably romantic story as Fiona Lucas (pictured below) – the award-winning author of contemporary fiction who also writes as Fiona Harper – steals our hearts and lifts our spirits with this rollercoaster journey through a young couple’s troubled past and present.

With an intriguing plot that skips cleverly between two timelines – five years apart – and two principal narrators, Always and Only You explores time-honoured themes like love, loss, grief and second chances, and speaks loudly of the powerful emotions that form the bedrock of human life.

It’s Erin’s big day... the day she has long dreamed about when she marries Simon, the love of her life. Erin – who worked as a stewardess on motor yachts in the Mediterranean until she got engaged – and Simon have been together for eight years so it feels right that they are finally tying the knot.

But the run-up to the wedding day has been stressful as Erin has had to balance the demands of friends with similar demands from Simon’s large and sprawling family... and that’s without mentioning Simon’s close friend and difficult best man, Gil.

Erin finds Gil moody and rude but Anjali, Erin’s best friend and chief bridesmaid, reckons he’s just ‘brooding’ and ‘the strong and silent type.’ It doesn’t help that Erin recognises that her personal dislike for Gil is based on the fact that he sees the things she hates most about herself, ‘the petty, imperfect things,’ the things that she is desperately trying to erase.

Despite all the frustrations of the pre-wedding build-up, Erin couldn’t be happier... couldn’t be happier, that is, until she walks down the church aisle and finds the wrong man waiting for her. Is the universe playing a cruel trick on her, or could it be that her perfect life isn’t quite what she imagined? And could the wrong man be the right one for Erin after all?

Dark secrets bubble beneath the surface of this gripping and beautifully crafted tale which stars an exquisitely drawn cast of characters – from Erin and her scatterbrained but lovable best friend Anjali to Simon and his glowering long-time pal Gil – and transports us from unimaginable heartbreak to hope and a new chance of happiness.

Written with the insight and tenderness we have come to expect from this perceptive author, and touching on themes of family, friendship and building a new life after trauma, this is a story of love, written with love... and guaranteed to be loved by all true romantics!
(HQ, paperback, £9.99)