“Mother, writer, worker, sister, friend, citizen, daughter, wife. If she had been just one, perhaps she would have made it. Trying to be everything, she discovered she was nothing.” These few lines capture all the frustration of Coralie, the protagonist of Consider Yourself Kissed (Bompiani, 2025, €20, 352 pages, also available as an e-book) by Australian journalist Jessica Stanley.
But where does so much frustration and discouragement come from? We have to rewind at least ten years. 2013: Coralie is an Australian copywriter who has come to London to forget a broken romance and an unwieldy boss. One winter day, she saves four-year-old Zora from a dive into the duck pond and returns her to her father, Adam, who bears a striking resemblance to actor Colin Firth. Finding out that Adam is separated and falling for him is a matter of moments. All's well that ends well?
Things aren't so easy in modern life. 2023: Coralie and Adam live together in a beautiful house. He's a political journalist constantly busy with podcasts, book deliveries, and long sessions in Westminster. She quit her job to care for their two children, Flo and Max, and Zora. But being a mother and a partner—and the head of a stimulating yet complex extended family—may not be enough for her. In theory, she has everything she's ever dreamed of, but in exchange, she's lost something: herself. Coralie realizes this, with disarming awareness, in the first pages of the novel, and then feels ready to "escape" a second time. She feels the urge to go away alone, oppressed by constant fatigue, frustration, and the knowledge that routine is consuming her love. Could this be the solution? Has Coralie reached the end of her dream, or is she walking toward a new beginning?
Jessica Stanley delivers a brilliant, joyful, familiar, and hilarious novel, yet at the same time a credible and uncompromising portrait of women, a ten-year-long romantic comedy set against the backdrop of an English society that changes as its protagonists do. A novel that, despite its lighthearted nature, tells us with grace, empathy, and subtle humor what we know but sometimes forget: that life as a couple is a full-time job. And that life is a constant challenge.