What She Did Next: What to Do When the Life You Planned is F**ked Up

by Eve Simmons

'An honest and helpful guide to what happens when life doesn't go according to plan. I know so many people who need this.' Elizabeth Day

'Dear Eve Simmons, your husband has applied for a divorce,' it read.
All I was required to do was click the link enclosed and select if I agreed or disagreed. I ticked the box titled 'agree', bit off a chunk of my nail and looked at the screen, thinking, now what?

What happens when 'happily ever after' ends too soon?

Eve Simmons had the life she thought she love, a home, a future, security. Then, overnight, it was gone. Her husband left with no explanation. No conversation. No closure.

Thrown into a heartbreak she never saw coming, the award-winning journalist did what she does she investigated. What she discovered was startling - her story wasn't rare. A growing number of women are being blindsided by sudden, unexplained break-ups. Some are mourning long-term relationships and others marriages that had barely begun.

In What She Did Next, Simmons blends gripping memoir with original reporting to uncover the hidden dynamics driving modern lovers apart, from emotional avoidance and burnout to shifting expectations of intimacy.

This is a powerful, timely book of love, loss and the courage to begin again.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

278 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 8, 2026

Reviews

[Susie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing style from real and honest lived experiences. The book does heavily sway on the UK legal system for reference, so not entirely relatable for those living in Australia or other countries.

[Jo Linn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was quite disappointed by this book as it felt strangely self-centred.

The title and blurb allude to it being about the author’s experience of divorce yet Eve’s story only makes up one of twelve chapters, and it’s not clear the book is a collection of stories of divorce from different people until you start reading it.

Eve’s story felt quite self-absorbed and didn’t show very much introspection, and the difference between the jacket and what’s inside leads me to believe the author wanted to make the book about herself but the story wasn’t interesting enough to fill a whole book.

I also think it would have been nice to see the break up from different sides of the relationship as many of the stories are very one sided and read like a series of complaints rather than real reflections on the breakdown of longterm relationships

[Hannah Ewens · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful personal writing mixed with original reporting - would recommend to anyone going through a break up / divorce / blindsiding in a relationship of some kind as it goes into the psychological aspects of the latter really well

[Meenal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made me very very sad

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

chapters on religious marriages were particularly interesting.

[lizzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great. If you know you know. Unbelievably relatable and some really interesting facts and research

[Jon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible