This Time Next Year

Minnie Cooper is convinced her New Year's birthday is cursed. The proof: exactly thirty years ago, she and a stranger named Quinn Hamilton were born minutes apart at the same London hospital just after midnight — and Quinn got everything. He was the first baby of 1990, took the newspaper's cash prize, and was even given the name Minnie's mother had planned for her. Ever since, every one of her birthdays has gone worse than the last.

Now, on their shared thirtieth, Minnie's pie-making business is teetering and her life feels stuck — and then she quite literally bumps into Quinn at a New Year's party. He's charming, successful, and seemingly blessed with all the luck she never had. But the more their paths keep crossing, the more Minnie suspects that Quinn's charmed life hides its own losses, and that the story she's told herself about fate might be wrong.

Sophie Cousens's debut is a warm, funny will-they-won't-they romance about luck and self-sabotage, friendship and family, and the courage it takes to stop blaming the stars and choose your own life.