Author:Rachel Marks
The uplifting and big-hearted new love story from the author of Until Next Weekend and Saturdays at Noon
'TOTALLY UNPUTDOWNABLE' 5* Reader review
'HAVE YOUR TISSUES READY' 5* Reader review
'THE ENDING WAS PERFECT' 5* Reader review
'Clever, poignant, and satisfying' Sunday Times bestseller Katie Fforde
'An eminently real and relatable love story . . . Lucy and Jamie had me at Hello' Julietta Henderson, author of The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman
'Heartbreakingly tender & poignant. It kept me guessing & hoping until the last page' Sophie Claire, author of A Winter's Dream
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From their very first date, Jamie and Lucy know they've met THE ONE.
They're as different as night and day. Jamie's a home bird, while Lucy's happiest on holiday. He has a place for everything - she can never find her keys.
Yet, somehow, they make each other happier than they ever thought possible.
So why does their story start with them saying 'goodbye'?
And does this really have to be the end . . . ?
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Relatable, romantic and heartbreakingly real, HELLO, STRANGER proves that the best love stories often have the most unexpected endings.
Praise for Rachel Marks:
'A total delight. Beautifully observed, painfully funny and profoundly moving, it's a wise and wonderful story of hope and love. I adored it!' Miranda Dickinson, Sunday Times bestselling author
'A delightful, heart-warming read. The characters feel so real... I'm sure I must know them somehow!' Sophie Cousens, author of the New York Times bestseller This Time Next Year
'Rachel Marks packs a novel with all the emotions - hope, fear, love, despair and - ultimately - joy' Clare Pooley, bestselling author of The Authenticity Project
'Unpredictable and satisfying' Heidi Swain, Sunday Times bestselling author
'As tender and emotional as it is funny, it made me laugh out loud A LOT, and it made me sob' Cressida McLaughlin
'Heartbreaking, heartwarming, perfect!' Rosie Goodwin, Sunday Times bestselling author
Clever, poignant, and satisfying
—— Sunday Times bestseller Katie FfordeOh boy did I love Hello, Stranger, a moving and surprising love story
—— Gillian McAllister, Sunday Times bestselling author of Wrong Place, Wrong TImePoignant, profound and yet written with a light touch - Marks has done it again. The story engages from the off . . . This is a heartbreaking and heart-warming story
—— WomanAn eminently real and relatable love story about the tussle between head, heart and the costs of holding on to your own truth. Rachel Marks has perfectly captured the pleasure, pain and poignancy of being human - Lucy and Jamie had me at Hello...
—— Julietta Henderson, author of Richard and Judy pick The Funny Thing About Norman ForemanHeart-warming . . . Lovely and thought-provoking
—— Hello!A book to cancel plans for - we're still not over the ending
—— CloserA heartbreaking and heartwarming read that deals sensitively with difficult issues
—— Woman's WeeklyA modern love story that's heartbreakingly tender & poignant. It kept me guessing & hoping until the last page. A fabulous read
—— Sophie Claire, author of A Winter’s DreamPraise for Rachel Marks
—— :Wise and wonderful. I adored it
—— Miranda Dickinson, Sunday Times bestselling authorRachel Marks packs a novel with all the emotions - hope, fear, love, despair and - ultimately - joy
—— Clare Pooley, bestselling author of The Authenticity ProjectHeartbreaking, heartwarming, perfect
—— Rosie Goodwin, Sunday Times bestselling authorHeartbreaking and hopeful; this book is a keeper
—— Woman's WeeklyUnpredictable and satisfying
—— Heidi Swain, Sunday Times bestselling authorBeautifully uplifting and at times unexpected
—— OK!As tender and emotional as it is funny, it made me laugh out loud A LOT, and it made me sob
—— Cressida McLaughlin, bestselling author of The Cornish Cream Tea BusHeartbreaking, funny and emotive
—— SunDazzling
—— EssentialsFans of Ian McEwan should rejoice with this arrival of this novel, because Sweet Tooth is McEwan's finest work since 2001's Atonement
—— Kevin Power , Sunday Business PostGiven McEwan’s ability to make riveting fiction out of English politics (not easy), it would be hard to imagine anyone better equipped to write such a story... Delicious... Gripping
—— James Lasdun , GuardianHis assumption of a female persona is pitch-perfect
—— Michael Arditti , Daily MailHad McEwan, through Serena’s benefit of hindsight in narrating her life, planted the clues? Let every reader have the pleasure of finding out
—— Ion Trewin , Sunday ExpressAn artful game of distortion... Clever handling
—— Anthony Quinn , Mail on SundayA curious piece of autobiographical fiction
—— David Sexton , Evening StandardA wisecracking thriller hightailing between love and betrayal, with serious counter-espionage credentials thrown in... This is ultimately a book about writing, wordplay and knowingness
—— Catherine Taylor , Sunday TelegraphNo contemporary novelist is more enthralled by what goes on inside the human skull than Ian McEwan... Sweet Tooth, which juxtaposes contrasting casts of mind, reminds you that, as well as intelligence, the intelligence service fascinates McEwan... Always excellent at conjuring up places and periods on the cusp of dramatic change... McEwan atmospherically resurrects the strife-ridden Britain of 1972 -73... Similarities and contrasts between the mentality and mind games of the secret service and those of the creative writer are increasingly brought to the fore. Doubling back and forth across genre boundaries, Sweet Tooth takes risks: narrative loiterings and twists whose purpose isn’t at first apparent, a payoff that is long delayed. But – ideally read more than once – this acute, witty novel is a winningly cunning addition to McEwan’s fictional surveys of intelligence
—— Peter Kemp , Sunday TimeMust read... Intrigue, love and mutual betrayal by a master of the art
—— The LadyThe great thing about McEwan is that, despite his success, he continues to work hard, producing ever more accessible and entertaining stories
—— Henry Sutton , Daily MirrorCarefully researched
—— John Scarlett , Daily TelegraphMcEwan, as always, presents an engaging narrator... The plot is fantastic... McEwan plays with the readers expectations, and surpasses them all with a fabulous ending that makes me itch to re-read this superb novel all over again. Sweet Tooth marks another triumph for a brilliant British author
—— Bookgeeks.co.ukA pleasing, tricksy beast with a subsumed sense of metatextuality likely to be pleasing to his fans
—— BookmunchAdroitly done...highly diverting
—— D.J. Taylor , Literary ReviewA triumphant shedding of genre limitations
—— Adam Mars-Jones , London Review of BooksThis most cunning of authors entertains and manipulates his readers. Sweet Tooth is a masterclass in the art of fiction
—— Paul Sidey , Book OxygenIan McEwan is getting better and better… Supremely tense, intellectually sharp, and honed as hell
—— William Leith , Evening StandardMcEwan’ssmoothly contrived thriller hightails between love and betrayal, with serious counter-espionage credentials thrown in
—— Sunday Telegraph SevenAn expertly crafted thriller written with a bucketload of suspense and wit
—— Hannah Britt , Daily ExpressAs richly textured as anything Ian McEwan has written
—— MaiBrilliantly cunning… It’s a story of love, betrayal and duplicity, with the most startling deception reserved for the final pages
—— Mail on Sunday (You)Playful, clever, knowing and full of stories
—— Absolutely ChelseaSupremely tense, intellectually sharp, and honed as hell
—— William Leith , ScotsmanBeyond virtuoso twists and turns, McEwan lays out the foreign landscape of 40 years ago – from smoky pubs to fuming punditry – with wry, affectionate panache
—— Boyd Tonkin , iTricksy, but satisfying
—— Justin Cartwright , ObserverThe sense of narrative purpose exerts its pull from the first
—— John Mullan , Guardian