Can one splendid night be enough to know? Or not?

Synopsis

One night. But how many second chances?

Heartbroken on Hogmanay, Steph wanders through the Edinburgh street party until she bumps into Jamie. He’s funny, attractive and clearly interested. In a word, he’s perfect – but she didn’t get his number. All she remembers is his lime and mango beer.  

Determined to be reunited, Steph tracks him by a milk carton style campaign, sticking a message to his favourite beer across local pubs. Although eventually reunited, Jamie is frequently uncontactable and evasive, and Steph worries she’s on the path to heartbreak once more.

There’s a fine line between being patient and being gullible, and Steph’s reaching her limit. When a chance encounter with Jamie reveals his secret, she faces an even tougher decision. Should Steph give love another chance, or was one night in Edinburgh all she and Jamie were meant to have?

A funny and emotional romance for fans of MhairiMcFarlane, Beth O’Leary and Rosie Walsh.

My review

The last thing Steph imagined, was that she would be heartbroken. Because the man she has been married with, has fallen in love with someone else.
And is there a better way to get over your heartbreak on Hogmanay than partying in Edinburgh streets with her best friend Anna, where she meets Jamie.
After one heck of a night, and being hurried, Steph forgets the most important thing, to get Jamie’s number.
As she cannot forget the man, she decides to find him with a milk carton style campaign. And with success nonetheless!
Happy to be reunited, Steph enjoys spending the weekends with Jamie. But why can’t they meet during the weekdays? And why is he not easy to contact and avoids any personal question?
Steph knows that patience can be rewarding, but when does patience change into being just a gullible woman?
What is Jamie hiding? And was Steph being used as so many women? Or is there more to Jamie’s story than she thinks? 

Is there something more romantic than meeting a guy on a special evening and feeling that click immediately? That is a recipe to a happy every ending, right? But what when you have no idea how to reach him?
So yes, I loved the idea of using the milk carton strategy to find Jamie back. 

But let’s start from the beginning… Steph gets the shock of her life when her husband tells her he has fallen in love with someone else.
She didn’t see that coming, as often also happens in real life.
But what I admired the most in Steph, as she realizes that there is nothing she can do about it, is that she adamant to stay best friends with Connor. Because even if on a romantic level it didn’t work out, their bond is too strong to break. 

I also loved her determination… while sleeping with the first man she meets on the Edinburgh streets is not something she would usually do (hasn’t done that ever!), she connects with Jamie, and she wants to see what there is in store for them.
It may seem that she is on a rebound, and just clutching herself to the first man she meets, and having too high expectations, she doesn’t give up or listens to her friends.
While I would be siding with her friends, because what do we really know about Jamie, I also understood why she wanted to find him.
A click that easy and strong, that must mean something? 

And I was happy when the two reconnected, but I was also very wary… It’s obvious that there is something that Jamie isn’t telling us, but what? And even if Steph was being very patient with him, giving him time and space, I don’t know if I would be the same. I am not known for my patience, so I think I would have reached my limit much sooner than Steph did. 

While I was going through several scenarios about Jamie, from being married, to being just a man looking for a one night stand, I was truly shocked when the truth came out.
But it also opened my open. Not everything is what it seems, and there is so much we don’t know about people. But is it right to judge them for that? A person’s situation isn’t proof of who the person actual is.  

However, Steph is the kind of person who looks beyond it, and sees the person for who he is, what cannot be said of her own family…
Can a family be more obnoxious than hers? 

This was a lovely story, about how relationships end, but remain in another form, about finding new love, but not letting be played with. But also a lovely tale about people helping out other people, even if it isn’t very rewarding in the monetary business, but more in the emotional business. Because helping those in need is never the wrong thing to do.
But most important, is that we see people for who they really are, and not judge them for the circumstance they are in right now. We never know what brought them in the situation, but there is always a way out. It may take some time, but no matter how deep the fall has been, we can stand up again and stand proud for what we have been through.
And the right people will stand by your side and help, no matter how low or how high you are standing…