I enjoyed this book. I always like to read new books set in the UK and this is situated mainly in Portsmouth and London. I also like books that feature neurodiversity – this one certainly does that. Add in an age gap romance, women in business and supportive funny friends and colleagues and I was quite happy.
Charlie, 51 meets a woman in the lobby when checking into the hotel for a women in business conference. Tori, 28 – who very wisely pointed out that she wasn’t an actual Tory, was very obviously checking out Charlie as she checked in. A little bit of slapstick comedy later involved Tori naked in Charlie’s room. Charlie is suspicious that she is being set up for something.
Tori turned out to be the keynote speaker the following day with Charlie lined up to speak next.
what follows is quite complex but funny, interesting and easy to follow.
There is a lot of information in this book – most of it is given in ways that feel natural to the story and the characters. There is the occasional infodump – but again that is interesting.
There are parts of this story that made me laugh out loud. Other parts made me wince – but I think that was the point.
There are a lot of ‘issues’ discussed in this story. Coming out to your parents at 51, being a baby left on a doorstep, being orphaned early, being in foster care, trans issues, neurodiversity in more than 1 form, consent, line dancing, commitment issues, abandonment issues, trust issues etc So a lot to be covered in a book but it makes it over the finish line.

Epilogue
This contrasts dinner with the parents of both Charlie and Tori.

This could be the book which has follow ups featuring other characters in the story perhaps?