Quarter Life Crises don’t get the media coverage of Mid Life Crises, but they should. Oh boy, should they!

A Quarter Life Crisis hits in your mid to late twenties as you come rocketing into life — relationships, kids, career twists, debts — and suddenly hit a wall.

Sometimes it’s a bouncy castle wall and you spring back up laughing. Count yourself incredibly lucky. You’re one of those people who are exactly where you need to be and your Quarter Life Crisis is more happy fluffy puppy than snarling attack dog. You have a look around and realise that you’re on the path that’s right for you.

For many of us, that’s not how it goes. Life drops us off a cliff and we don’t bounce. We hit every rock on the way down and wail loudly as we go. Landing hurts.

But this falling down — our expectations being thumped by reality — is a gift. We can take the time (from our moaning agony at the bottom of the cliff) to double check what it is we want from life, the chasm between our dreams and our reality, and what we’re going to do to build a bridge.

Talking to people about Quarter Life Crises I’ve had them lean across the coffee table and go “YES! When I was twenty seven…”. It seems we all experience the crisis of who are we and what value do we bring to the world. How we respond to the challenge is the fascinating bit — and that’s why I wrote Kiss It Better.

Romances work best — tap our shared experience and engage our emotions — when they take a key life change as their motivating conflict. So that’s what I did.

Revisit gorgeous Jardin Bay with Jenny Schwartz’s fabulous new novel. The town may look like paradise, but for one nurse, it represents only broken dreams.

All Cassie Freedom wants to do is save the world, and she could, if only she were able to. But her dream of nursing in Africa is shattered, and she returns home to Jardin Bay, where familiarity, security, and a sense of her own failure threaten to drown her.

Dr. Theo Morrigan knows a thing or two about responsibility, leaving his own medical practice to take over a family business. He knows his mind, his future, and how he wants to live his life – until an old secret resurfaces and rocks his whole world.

Suddenly, the man who needed no one needs a broken-hearted nurse, and a nurse who thinks she’s too weak will find her own strength.

Release date: 1 October 2014