Lev's autobody shop on the West Coast of New Zealand burns down with no insurance, and then his girlfriend leaves him. He is about to ring a friend in Canada when he notices a Bay of Islands phone number in his address book. Tomislav was a great friend many years ago, but can Lev make a fresh start in Kerikeri at the age of fifty?

When he and Bessie both offer to translate something on Mary's new coffee machine at the Village Fair Café, his Italian is better than hers – but he reminds her of her ex. Running back to New Zealand from Italy after a disastrous breakup with Tomasso has coloured the way she sees Lev.

But there's something between them, and with hesitant steps they begin to explore it, going backwards sometimes as they learn to understand each other. When Lev's ex arrives on the scene, it doesn't help!

This book was first published at Amazon (until their author support did crazy things once too often – and this is coming from a maths teacher who is very IT literate). It had an average rating of 4.4/5.0 from 82 reviews when my books were unpublished at Amazon in early 2025.