Life Skills

Paperback, Excellent condition

Written By: Katie Fforde

A combination of overwork and jet-leg propels Julia Fairfax into becoming engaged to a golf-playing wine buff called Oscar. But when she realises that she has fonder feelings for his adorable Labrador than for Oscar himself, she is forced to confront the fact that there is something drastically wrong.

Julia Fairfax has spent the last six years working hard to develop a new department at her job, only to have it taken away from her and given to someone younger and less experienced. At the same time, she finds herself engaged to a man whom she really doesn’t know much about, and what she does know, she really doesn’t like. She decides to go against her usual stable, reliable self and act rashly, so she ends her engagement, quits her job, and puts her house up for rent for the summer. She takes a job as a cook working on a pair of hotel boats that will sail the canals of England and sets off for a summer of hard work, no days off, and escape from her ex-fiance and his overbearing mother. But Julia doesn’t realize how easy she is to find after all, and it isn’t just her ex-fiance who finds her. Despite its slightly exasperating heroine, Fforde’s romance is witty, original, and perfect for readers looking for something different.

344 pages