Beautiful Strangers

by Julie Highmore

When Cait joins a singles' week in Oxford and realises that there are far more women than men, she resigns herself to concerts, museums and punting with something of a heavy heart. But a spur-of-the-moment decision takes her and fellow party member, Ralph, to discover a completely different side to the city one in which fortysomething Cait falls hopelessly in lust with a younger man, and Ralph ends up pursued by both the police and a violent drug-dealing gang. Daniel, not taken with the other singles, goes in search of Cait, and he too is caught up in Oxford's exotic parallel universe, with strange consequences that lead him to an idyllic north Wales smallholding...and maybe the woman of his dreams.

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 21, 2008

About the author

After having her three children, Julie became a mature student at first Westminster College, then Oxford Brookes University, where she gained a degree in English. As part of the course, she studied creative writing with Philip Pullman, who encouraged her to continue with her writing after graduation. This she did, and her published work includes nine rom-com novels, and more recently, a crime fiction series for The Book Folks. The Missing American - the first in the series - features the somewhat flawed, Oxford-based private investigator, Edie Fox; a single mother and very young grandmother who inadvertently gets her precious family caught up in her first big case. Although her recent novels have ventured into some dark places, Julie manages to inject humour into the stories without diminishing the danger of situations Edie finds herself in.

Between graduating and becoming a published author, Julie taught English as a foreign language, and for several years was a reader for Oxford University Press’s Children’s Books.

She enjoys music, binge-watching a good TV series, country strolls, doing the New York Times crossword, and hanging out with her husband and ever-expanding family. With two Edie books now in production and a third following in Spring 2023, Julie is hoping to continue with the series while also exploring other crime-fiction paths.

Reviews

[Bronwyn Rykiert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it, didn’t want to put it down – highly recommended

This story starts and ends with Cait from Wales joining a singles group at Oxford for a week’s vacation. As they sit down on the first night Cait has her eye on Daniel, a visiting American but he is waylaid by 2 other women, then a latecomer, Ralph, turns up and sits beside Cait. Before she knows it Ralph has asked her to play hooky on the group and they go to a pub, get drunk and ask nearly 30 year old local, Joe, if he can help them. He ends up letting them stay at his place for the night – Cait and Joe are attracted to each other and she decides why not? The next day there is a carnival and Cait looses Ralph but finds Joe – Daniel has also decided to look for Cait though he finds his own exotic group of friends and hangs with them for the night. Ralph’s antics bring a few laughs to the story as he gets himself into a few scrapes. There are other people who make the story fun too, Joe’s father Julian & his friend Zack, Cait’s son Frankie and his best friend’s sister, Beth and Luna (she calls herself a white witch).

After the singles week they all find themselves at Cait’s smallholding in Wales at different times. The developing relationships were interesting, though a little frustrating between Cait and Daniel.

[Lesley Book Lover · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uuum! Not too sure about this one, couldn't really get into it properly.