Harriet Harper is a woman ahead of her time. As the owner of a successful tearoom and respected stalwart of the community in Windermere, Harriet appears to have everything. However, appearances can be deceptive and in 1925 Harriet is aware that society finds her single status unusual. The fact that her friend, Dr Charles Peterson, has been in love with her for years has not gone unnoticed - except by Harriet.
After working in partnership with Harriet to create a much needed cottage hospital, Charles finally decides to make his move. However, a glamorous American art broker, William Halliday, thwarts his attempt. Harriet finds herself besotted by him and blinded to everything, including his lies and deceit. Harriet’s life is rapidly turned upside down on a dangerous journey that tears her away from her beloved Windermere and into dangerous territory, both in England and America.
Aside from a few short stories about Keanu Reeves, A Girls Guide to Guys is Rachel's first attempt at writing. She has just trudged her way through her school years and is now ready to begin the hard life of a university student; where it is clearly all serious work and early mornings.
As well as giving her an excuse to laze around and read books all day, she hopes her choice of an English Literature course will finally knock the confusion between 'your' and 'you're' out of her once and for all.
A Girls Guide to Guys was written as a result of Rachel being absolutely hopeless when it came to anything boy related. Turning to girly magazines, she found some help in numerous how to articles but found mainly that these were written for semi-capable people who only needed a little push in the right direction.
Rachel did need someone to tell her how to do something; she needed someone to tell her how to do everything, right down to the shoes to wear. Because it's all very well to tell someone to 'smile alluringly' but there is a surprisingly fine line between 'flirting with your eyes' and scary evil stare.
Sometime later, when she'd finally gathered her information together from a secret boy source who may or may not know his giving away of guy secrets have found their way into a book, she decided that there was a slim chance there were other girls out there similarly hopeless with boys and so maybe she should share what she'd found out.
The guide is introduced by a character called Gabby who leads the reader through the guide explaining all about the strange alien life from that gives every girl problems, BOYS! Why Gabby? Because then she can pretend it is her alter ego who knew what to do all along.