So Happy to be on the Blog tour for the second of Ko Porteous and her book, The Twenty Dates, the first in the Empty Nesters series.
The Blurb
The kids have left, assuming love endures. But can yours?
Book #2 in The Empty Nesters Series
Claire’s marriage is in (total!) crisis. Her husband, Mark, is distracted, presumptuous, and utterly clueless – smart scales for their 19th wedding anniversary? Really? Perhaps she’d be better off alone. At least there’d be less laundry.
When Claire suggests separating, Mark panics. He asks for one last chance: twenty dates, one for each year of their marriage, to prove they’re better off together than apart.
What follows is a series of adventures Claire never saw coming – some mortifying, some exhilarating, and some that make her question everything she thought she knew. About Mark. About marriage. And about the woman she’s quietly become while she wasn’t paying attention.
As the dates tick down, Claire must decide: is the spark still there – or has their marriage simply run its course?
Purchase Links
https://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Dates-Empty-Nesters-Book-ebook/dp/B0H5G54FXK/
My Review
The Twenty Dates: Warm, endorsing and authentic – about marriage, mid-life and the quiet re-evaluation when the kids leave home. by Ko Porteous
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed the first book in the Empty Nester series, so I dove into this with anticipation, and I wasn’t disappointed.
A couple celebrating their 19th anniversary finds itself in a rut. A husband who is very busy with work and appears to take his wife and life for granted. A wife who has recently experienced two significant losses: her son disappearing to university and leaving her stable job.
An inopportune anniversary present sparks the thought that they are no longer in this marriage for the reasons they were, and so comes the idea to live apart and have 20 special dates to mark the next significant anniversary, to see if they can salvage their marriage.
Claire and Mark are such believable and likeable characters, and I challenge most folks of a certain age to say they have never felt taken for granted, and that life is just as it is.
The story sees them face challenges, overcome misunderstandings and begin to rediscover the reasons they are together, but not without plenty of will they won’t they moments, too!
About The Author
Ko Porteous lived in a tiny fishing village in northern Scotland before moving to Edinburgh at 10.
Ko loves meeting people with interesting stories to tell and is constantly on the lookout for knotty story themes, particularly involving women navigating the messiness of life. She has worked as a Research Chemist, Assistant Chef, Teacher and School Leader.
As well as writing, Ko works as a Business Manager and provides listening services for a mental health charity aiming to reduce the number of deaths caused by suicide.
In her free time Ko loves to run, meditate and travel; preferably all on the same day.
Ko has been married for 25 years, has 2 children of her own and is now navigating her own empty nest.
The Twenty Dates is Ko’s second novel and the second book in ‘The Empty Nesters’ series.
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