Unusual romance delightfully phrased

FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE<br><b>Marianne Kavanagh</b><br>Text Publishing</b>
FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE<br><b>Marianne Kavanagh</b><br>Text Publishing</b>
For Once in My Life is an unusual romance if ever there was one.

Usually, a love story is about a girl meeting a boy (or whatever your proclivity) and ending in happily ever after. This book, however, is about a girl, Tess, who doesn't meet the boy, George, despite the ongoing advice of friends, but the story still manages to end happily ever after - many twists, turns and wrong relationships notwithstanding.

It's a ''what if'' story, which I think many will relate to. Even Tess' grandmother admits at one point to a ''what if'' situation in her life that she has never revealed to her daughter, Tess' mother.

Romances of any kind are not my scene, but this one I enjoyed immensely. It put me in mind of Bridget Jones and, in my mind's eye, I had Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth as the main characters.

The descriptive phrasing is a delight as the story follows the couple's blundering way through life from 2002 to 2011, when they finally meet at a 30th birthday party and realise they are, indeed, ''soul mates''.

- Ted Fox is a Dunedin online marketing consultant.

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