Anyone for Seconds?

by Fiona Cassidy

Meet Frankie McCormick, lone parent to Ben and Carly, PR guru and a woman who finds men who wear glasses irresistible. Enter Owen Byrne (Clark Kent minus the manky Y-fronts). He's sexy, dynamic and is everything a girl could wish for. The one fly in the ointment comes in the form of his horrendous teenage daughter, the seriously misnamed Angelica. The path of true love never runs smooth but for Frankie and Owen the road is particularly treacherous (a minefield would be safer). Family crises, interfering in-laws (or is that outlaws?) and a bittersweet tragedy all culminate to test their relationship while faces from the past threaten their future as a family. Second chances don't pop up very often and when they do it's best to grab them with both hands. Will Frankie and Owen have the courage to stand together and become a family with 2.4 children or is that 3.6 children?

Genres: Chick Lit

485 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

I was born in Belfast in 1975, adopted at four months and raised in Galbally Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland. I am better known locally as Fionnuala McGoldrick but decided to adopt the pen name Fiona Cassidy for writing (because Cassidy is my maiden name of which I am very proud and as people can actually pronounce Fiona without saying F...wha?).

I was educated firstly in St. Joseph's P.S. Galbally (where my father was Vice-Principal and my mother a teacher and I could get away with nothing!!) and then at St. Joseph's Convent Grammar School, Donaghmore. After the births of my two eldest children I went on to complete several management qualifications before graduating with a Diploma in Communication specialising in Training and Development from Loughry College in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone. This was a very wise decision on my part as I met my partner Philip there who was an Audio Visual Technician who taught my class about the importance of giving a good presentation one memorable night! (Forget Dateline - just become a mature student and let the lecturer ask you out after ferociously batting your eyelashes and praying that he'll notice you!)

I have experience of working within Customer Service, Personnel and PR in Tesco, worked for nearly six years with a charity who support the victims and witnesses of crime when they're giving evidence in court and most recently worked as an Outreach and Promotions Officer for a rural charity.

Philip and I have been together for nine and a half years and our noisy brood are to Donaghmore, where we currently live, what the Von Trappes were to Austria (minus the enthusiastic climbing of trees wearing curtains!) We have five children between us Colm 15 (mine), Úna 13 (mine), Catríona 13 (his), Ciarán 11 (his) and Áine 3 (ours) and collectively are proud to call ourselves a very happy family.

I have always had a passion for reading which eventually led to an ambition to write and my dreams came true on 8th April 2009 when I was offered a three book publishing deal with Poolbeg Press Ltd. My first romantic comedy book called Anyone For Seconds? hit the shelves on 2nd November and I'm proud to say stayed at no. 6 in the Irish paperback fiction book chart for several weeks! My second novel entitled Anyone for Me? is due to be published in August!

I always write about what I know hence my first book is about two single parents who meet, fall in love and try to conduct a relationship whilst managing the trials and tribulatiions of a step-family...now where would I have got my plot from there?? Although I do hasten to add that the horrible teenage daughter in the book was purely fictional as my girls are angels...no really! My second book is written in a similar humorous vein but deals with the subject of adoption where a young woman goes on a madcap journey fraught with difficulties to try and find her birth mother. Unfortunately I had to improvise slightly as I have never met my birth mother but who knows what the future may hold!

I collect jewellery, handbags and shoes and want a walk in shoe cupboard a la Carrie Bradshaw! I love films that make me laugh until I cry and am a sucker for a happy ending and would need another room to house the books I have purchased over the years. My favourite authors are Sharon Owens, Lisa Jewel, Erica James and Sinead Moriarty and I love listening to Feeder, The Feeling, Taylor Swift and all the good stuff from the 80's and 90's (when my children allow me control of the music channel that is...)

Reviews

[Mandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone for Seconds by Fiona Cassidy

I loved this book. This is the first book by Fiona Cassidy that I have read and I now really want to read more from her.

This story is about Frankie, who is a reluctant single mum to Ben & Carly. Her ex-husband ran off to live in America with Stella who he was having an affair with. Frankie meets & falls in love with Owen, who is the man of her dreams. Ben & Carly both love Owen and are happy to have him in their lives. The fly in the blended family's ointment is Angelica, Owen's teenage daughter, who resents Frankie and her involvement with her father.

Throw into the mix the ex-husband's poisonous granny, Angelica's maternal aunt, Frankie's bossy mother, doting sister & also her crazy best friend and you have a funny and touching story.

The struggles, resentment & arguments within a blended family are written so sensitively and you can imagine yourself there and understanding things from all sides and you find yourself loving each character and then really not liking a couple of them especially Angelica (but saying that, from experience of being a teenager and suddenly having a step-family, I can understand her view).

I would recommend this book to anyone who needs a book that will make you laugh one minute & then cry the next.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

After her husband Tony ups and leaves her, Frankie McCormick swears off all men for good and has been raising her son and daughter, Ben and Carly, by herself since then. So when she first meets Owen Byrne, the last thing she’s expecting to happen is to fall in love with him.

Fall in love they do but it’s not without it’s disasters. For starters, Owen’s daughter Angelica hates Frankie and is doing all she can to break them up. Not to mention the fact their respective in-laws are doing their level best to also break them up. Throw in a bittersweet tragedy, stir in some faces from the past and watch as Frankie and Owen’s relationship is tested to the limit. Do the pair have what it takes to stay together or will they make the heartbreaking decision to go their separate ways and save their sanities?


Anyone For Seconds? is Fiona Cassidy’s (real name Fionnuala McGoldrick but it was thought using her real name would be difficult to spell/remember) debut novel and one I’ve been looking forward to for some time now. I’ve actually been chatting with Fionnuala (look at me – hobnobbing with authors!) so when this finally arrived I was so worried about starting it in case I hated it. Fionnuala has been incredibly kind to me so it would have been difficult to write a bad review had I hated the book!

My worry over hating the book evaporated immediately as the book easily sucked me in with it’s easy-to-read writing style. The book starts with Frankie telling us that instead of being miserable and cold because it’s January, she’s actually incredibly happy as she’s just met the man of her dreams – Owen. It was a very interesting start to the book and I was easily sucked in to Frankie’s life. We’re quickly introduced to her children – Ben and Carly – and we learn that Frankie is a (reluctant) single mother as her ex-husband Tony took off to America with Stella, the woman he had been having an affair with. Frankie holds no punches when it comes to telling us all about her ex-husband and I admired her honesty. It’s clear from the off that herself and her family are incredibly close-knit which makes for wonderful reading.

Frankie was a fantastic lead character and I really liked her. Right from the off I thought she was warm, funny but also prone to bad temperedness. Before meeting Owen she had gone through quite a lot and then when she was with Owen, their relationship went through a whole bunch of problems too. Some self-inflicted, some not and some that were quite sad. I was wondering if Frankie would ever get a break! In most chick lit books, the man of the book rarely appears at the beginning of the book – never mind the fact they start dating right at the beginning. It’s something that’s a rarity and if you want to write it that way then it has to be done well. After all you can hardly get them together right at the beginning and have them sail through life. That would be rather silly and a bit boring. It’s safe to say Fionnuala throws a lot of problems at the pair and I just kept wishing they would pull through together as they were a really nice couple and Owen seemed incredibly sweet throughout. I really liked Frankie’s children Ben and Carly, they seemed polite whenever they were around and like incredibly nice kids. Comapred to Angelica, Owen’s teenage daughter, they were a pair of angels! For most of the book Angelica is a bit of a pain in the backside and I found myself, like Frankie, getting tired of the fact that everyone kept going on and on about how sad she was that her mother had left as if it was some kind of excuse. Ben and Carly’s father left and they didn’t act as if it was their right to be spiteful and vindictive. Frankie’s family were all fantastic. I loved that Frankie’s mother was such a drama queen as she really made me laugh. Frankie’s dad also made me laugh actually since his solution to all problems seemed to be taking the dog for a walk! Ella, Frankie’s sister, goes through a bit of a tough time and I felt so sad for her for everything she was going through. The final main character is Ruby, Frankie’s best friend, and I absolutely adored her. She’s everything you would want in a best friend and more. A few minor characters popped up now and again like Nebby Peg, Frankie’s granny-in-law, (I love that Frankie calls her that) and Owen’s in-laws who were quite nasty.

Fionnuala’s writing is simplistic and very readable and although the book is almost 500 pages long I found myself speeding through it without realising quite how far I’d gotten into the book. There really is nothing like losing yourself in a book. Fionnuala is incredibly talented at keeping her writing style easy to read and I never once found myself getting confused with all of the characters present. On the front of the book Claire Allan says the book is warm and witty and I couldn’t agree more. Anyone For Seconds? is the kind of book that leaves you smiling. Yes, Frankie and Owen have had a tough time and continue to have rough patches but you can’t help but root for them throughout the entire book.

I truly recommend you give Anyone For Seconds? a read, it really is a perfect tale of family life as it is nowadays: step-parents, step-siblings, nebby in-laws (or ex-in-laws as the case may be) and through a fantastic cast of characters, Fionnuala McGoldrick has created such a warm and enjoyable read.

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frankie McCormick is just getting her life back on track. Her pig of a husband Tony left her for an American bimbo who he’s now having a baby with, and left her with their 2 young children to look after, a job to hold down and a life to run too. When she meets Owen at work, she doesn’t expect him to be interested in a frumpy mum of 2, but luckily for her he is. However, there’s one problem – Angelica, Owen’s teenage daughter who seems hellbent on hating Frankie and making their relationship a misery. Is their relationship going to be able to survive the wrath of a wronged teenager or will it be heartbreak for Frankie once more?

This book was sent to me by Fiona’s publicist Emma Walsh, and I was really eager to start it because it had such a good plot and looked exactly like the sort of book I love to read. Fiona is an Irish author published by Poolbeg Press, the leading publishers in Ireland for women’s fiction, and I knew if they were publishing Fiona’s book then it had to be good! We’ve been lucky enough to have Fiona write us a series of blog posts exclusively for our site about the road to becoming an author so do check those out if you get the time! Anyway, back to the review…

The book has a very uplifting writing style to it that draws you in right from the beginning. As a single mum of a toddler, I could really relate to Frankie very well and I think she’s a very realistic character that is believable and likeable, but also she’s one that women will be able to relate to, single or not, because of her juggling her home, kids and job! Frankie doesn’t think any man can be attracted to her, but I loved seeing her turnaround and realise she was actually a catch, and the blossoming romance between her and Owen was so touching, you can’t help but want it all to work out for poor old Frankie!

There are quite a few other characters in the book, but they are actually really important for the development of the storyline, and the minor storylines too. Owen is a bit “Prince Charming” at first but soon becomes a more realistic male. Cassidy writes the relationship between Owen and daughter Angelica very well – there’s more to it than meets the eye and while you think he’s being too soft on her, you’re suddenly reminded about Angelica’s past by Fiona and feel a bit guilty for thinking badly of her! My favourite other character is that of Ella, Frankie’s sister and her husband Hammy. They have their own problems but the way the sisters relationship is written is so sweet it doesn’t matter, they are always there for each other.

The book looks at lots of different relationships, and I thoroughly enjoyed each of them. You can see the guilt that Frankie feels for having another relationship and the effect it has on her children Ben and Carly, and I feel Cassidy has really put this across well because it’s an important part of Frankie’s life. The interactions between Frankie and Angelica are at times painful but by the end I found it was vital to have happened that way because it seemed how it would be naturally between the pair. Owen and Frankie were a great pairing, and also the relationship between Frankie and her parents was funny in parts, but also something I could relate to in a way too!

Fiona Cassidy has a very warm writing style, and seems to have the knack of what makes great women’s fiction. I can liken her books to that of Claire Allan, a fellow Poolbeg author and if you enjoy one of these ladies books, you’ll definitely like the other. The book is fairly long, but I found myself breezing through it because it was very intriguing and easy to read. I cared for the characters by the end, especially Frankie, and I loved the ups and downs throughout the book, and the fact it wasn’t all plain sailing for these characters. I was gutted as I turned the final page as I didn’t want to leave these characters behind, but it makes me eager to read Fiona’s next book Anyone For Me? due out this summer! A fabulous read, and highly recommended.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was a great read. Quite a long book but it had plenty of drama and sadness and happiness and surprises and just everything, that it was so easy to read and I flew through it in a day. (Being stuck in lockdown helps to) Thoroughly enjoyable and I highly recommend.

[Rachel (Confessions of a Book Geek) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely loved this book, thought frankie and owens relationship was fantastic, hated angelica so much to start with but loved how that turned out. good light easy reading had me laughing at times and crying at others brilliant book

[Karen Roe]

Lovely

What a lovely read about family life. Loved Frankie with all her troubles on becoming a stepmum. Would highly recommend this chick lit

[sarah cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyable

Very easy reading but good plot/story if you have a busy life easy to put down and pick story up again. Will be reading more of this author's books.

[Gayle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely warm light easy read - just what I was looking for. Funny hormonal characters trying to live in hope.