I Hope You Dance — Beth Moran

Ruth Henderson has moved back in with her parents - something she swore she would never do, especially not at the age of thirty-three. But in the face of the mountain of debt left by her late-partner and the fact that her teenage daughter, Maggie, is expressing her grief through acts of delinquency, there was really only one option. Returning to a house Ruth swore never to set foot in again is bad enough. Add to this an estranged father, whirlwind mother, and David - the boy next door who broke her heart - and it is little wonder Ruth can barely make it out of bed. But then, reunited with her old friend Lois, Ruth is persuaded to go along to a monthly girls' night. Here she meets a bunch of incredible women and for the first time since leaving home at eighteen, Ruth begins to make some genuine friends. She also has her first ever date - with the charming Dr Carl Barker. However, after a disastrous dinner, and a fraught Maggie still struggling with her father's death, Ruth promises her daughter she won't go out with any other men. A promise she quickly regrets when David, the boy next door, asks her to dance: