The Little Shop of Happy Ever After (Kirrinfief, #1)

by Jenny Colgan

Hold it up and your arm gets tired and you get a big book-shaped tan mark (which I believe in some circles is quite the cool signifier). Read into the sun and you squint in an unattractive fashion.

Even so, pre-book a window seat so you can curl up; put your headphones on and something soothing on the in-flight radio, and dive in for several hours. Except for that bit when they’re bringing drinks down the aisle and you think they’re going to miss you and you get a bit antsy and can’t concentrate. Put the book down at that point and glance at a magazine, pretending to be really casual and utterly unfussed as to whether you get served or not.

The problem with good things that happen is that very often they disguise themselves as awful things.

‘The Knife of Never Letting Go,’

up here where it was clearer, and she could breathe, and she wasn’t surrounded by a million people in a tearing hurry dashing or grabbing or shouting or achieving things in their lives that they plastered all over Facebook and Instagram, making you feel inadequate.

Books had been her solace when she was sad; her friends when she was lonely. They had mended her heart when it was broken, and encouraged her to hope when she was down.