Enough Really is Enough / BookTrail Publishing (ePub)

Lucie, a 60-something woman, is happily (more or less) settled in a relatively long-term but part-time relationship with Richard, who all her friends are convinced isn't right for her - reluctantly she suspects what they say is true but fear of being on her own stops her from challenging him. Eventually though she has enough of his sketchy behaviour and tells him to go, hoping that will be a shock to his complacency and prove to be just a break. After a while, and to her joy, he returns and says those three little words she's been longing to hear, going so far as to present her with a 'commitment* ring. Lulled into what proves to be a false sense of security, she's nothing short of devastated when soon afterwards she's unceremoniously dumped. Friends rally round but it takes an unexpected revelation to shock her out of her self-pity.

Shortly afterwards, completely by chance, she bumps into an attractive man. As she comes to realise he's much younger than her, she wonders whether the relationship's entirely appropriate, but his persistence plus incredible sex makes him far too hard to give up, After a wonderful weekend away, she discovers he's been living a lie but his plausible explanation persuades her to continue.

Her world is rocked when she's diagnosed with breast cancer; she goes through surgery followed by radiotherapy after which she endures the trials and tribulations of coming to terms with a prosthetic breast. If all that isn't enough Covid strikes the world which means that, in a heartbeat, she loses every bit of her work. Desperate for money, she takes in a transvestite lodger who proves to be a life-saver in many ways.

She's suddenly faced by a dilemma with her new man - can she continue when his thinking about how a relationship should be conducted is so fundamentally different to her own?

And then, out of the blue, Richard returns wanting to rekindle their romance. She agrees to meet him - will she accept his proposal?