‘Do you always sleep in separate beds?’ A question from her outspoken friend Kiki shocks Amelia Bradlow into taking stock of her ‘perfect’ life. She might have the adoring husband, the flat in Mayfair and the weekend cottage, but what about the things that really matter? Like the unmentionable matter of the baby they haven’t had . . . Just when she is most confused, up pops gorgeous Joseph Renwick – the first boy she ever kissed – back in town and dangerously single. Struggling to put thoughts of him aside, Amelia makes some big changes. A reinvigorated career and a style makeover turn her into a new woman – but husband Ed preferred the old one. So with her internal clock ticking ever louder, Amelia has to decide whether to stay in her nearly happy marriage, or take a gamble on going solo. Is it better to break your own heart than to settle for second best?

Maggie Alderson (born 1959) is a London-born author and fashion journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald. She is the former editor of Elle magazine, and was deputy editor of Cleo. The internationally bestselling Girls Night In "chick lit" anthology series she co-edited with author Jessica Adams and columnist Imogen Edwards-Jones made millions for the charity War Child.