Jessica Stanley

Consider Yourself Kissed is a love story like no other: charming, warm, heartfelt and funny but with a truly razor-like authenticity. I absolutely loved every moment and didn’t want it to end!

Liane Moriarty, internationally bestselling author of BIG LITTLE LIES

Consider Yourself Kissed is a smart literary love story and an absorbing family drama. Jessica Stanley follows her characters over the years as they make their way in the private, intricate, fragile world they create for themselves, and in the always-changing larger world. This is a deeply appealing and winning novel

Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of THE INTERESTINGS

Fabulous . . . It's clever, joyful, familiar and awkward, and so funny.

Pandora Sykes, author of HOW DO WE KNOW WE'RE DOING IT RIGHT?

I loved it, I loved them, I loved the Cazaletty interior details, I loved the social politics, I loved the actual politics, I loved the time span, I loved how complicated everyone was. I already know I will read it again . . . A beautiful romcom for grown-ups.

Ella Risbridger, author of MIDNIGHT CHICKEN

Beautifully written, wise, funny, moving. Deftly fuses the personal and the political. A proper grown-up love story.

Utterly brilliant - so astonishingly clever, but with a core of love. It's generous, it's hopeful, it's one of the very best grown up love stories I have ever read. And wears its smartness so lightly, but it captures the strangeness of the past few years perfectly. I could not have adored it more.

Daisy Buchanan, author of INSATIABLE and CAREERING

Consider Yourself Kissed is ringingly original and just absurdly good. Jessica Stanley captures all the tenderness and brutality of young motherhood without dulling either, and the relationships and writing are so bracingly, deliciously fresh that I wish there were a fresher word than fresh. And that the book were 1000 pages longer.

Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS

I loved it. I was grinning like an idiot for the first forty pages, and crying for the next forty . . . It links emotional and political events so brilliantly and is incredibly funny too.

Emma Healey, million-copy bestselling author of ELIZABETH IS MISSING

Oh, how I loved and empathised with Coralie! Consider Yourself Kissed is funny, tender, authentic and incredibly moving

Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of THE LIST OF SUSPICIOUS THINGS

I absolutely raced through this novel which I found so smart, funny and true to life. Ones of those books you’ll want to give all your friends once you’ve finished

The platonic ideal of reading experiences! . . . So funny, so smart and deliciously well observed! A real treat.

Immersive, truly funny, brilliantly smart, and full of lovable characters, Consider Yourself Kissed is a joy. In her novel spanning ten years of one woman's life, Jessica Stanley balances domesticity and politics, contemporary British history and the pursuit of love – and she makes it all seem effortless. I cried when I read the last page, simply because I was bereft that it was over.

Jessica Stanley’s principal subject is romance, which she renders—in all its mess and glory—masterfully. But the real delight in Consider Yourself Kissed is how the novel confidently thinks about love more broadly: the feeling we can have for family, for work, for art and books and our homes and our friends, for the very world around us. It is an exhilarating read, a marvel of a book.

Rumaan Alam, author of LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND

I'm annoyed I didn’t write this book myself. Combines rom-com breeziness with sharp political observation, plus one of the best depictions of stepmother-hood I’ve ever read.

Current as well as timeless, this book is full of such heart and humility. It’s a love story rooted in reality, yes, but most of all, I found it to be a heartfelt family portrait, so well-drawn it was like peering through someone’s kitchen window. Romance meets reality amid a kaleidoscope of societal chaos - it’s smart, page-turning and resonant. I couldn’t put it down.

Claire Daverley, author of TALKING AT NIGHT

Set over ten years, this wonderful, sweeping novel doesn’t just make the political personal, but the personal political. It shows us how life is a series of negotiations and situations over which you have little control, but that loving and being loved is central. Beautiful and life affirming.

Araminta Hall, author of ONE OF THE GOOD GIRLS

A book about falling in love to fall in love with - Consider Yourself Kissed is a beautifully observed, charming, intelligent, very funny novel full of heart and warmth and life. Jessica Stanley is a rare and special talent.

A beautiful, harrowing, wild ride through everyday life, Consider Yourself Kissed is a love song to women everywhere

Annabel Monaghan, author of NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT

An extremely intelligent, present and excellently written marvel of a book that I will never stop thinking about.

Ore Agbaje-Williams, author of THE THREE OF US

Funny, tender, intelligent, and political, Consider Yourself Kissed finds the beauty and ecstasies in the life of a woman around marriage, motherhood and family, all while dissecting its complications and heartbreaks. I felt embraced in its gentle humour, and then gut punched by its deep emotion and perceptiveness. By the end I was so invested in the story that I became Coralie!

Likely to be one of the big love stories of 2025, set against the political upheavals of the past decade

I read Consider Yourself Kissed with my hand on my heart, and now that it’s done, I want to be right back inside its pages. A charming, emotional and feminist tour de force, this is one of the most delightful and relatable books I’ve read about modern womanhood, the evolution of love, and the way we show up in the world. A true treasure of a novel. I need more from Jessica Stanley!

Ashley Audrain, internationally bestselling author of THE PUSH

As warm as a David Nicholls novel

'Likely to be one of the big love stories of 2025' THE SUNDAY TIMES, Books to Look Out for in 2025 
'Joyful . . . I loved it!' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, Books to Watch in 2025 
'I absolutely loved every moment and didn't want it to end!' LIANE MORIARTY, internationally bestselling author of BIG LITTLE LIES 
'Clever, joyful, familiar, and so funny' NINA STIBBE, author of LOVE, NINA 
'A deeply appealing and winning novel' MEG WOLITZER, New York Times bestselling author of THE INTERESTINGS 
'Ringingly original and just absurdly good' CATHERINE NEWMAN, New York Times bestselling author of WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS 
'I'm annoyed I didn't write this book myself' MADELEINE GRAY, author of GREEN DOT 
‘So astonishingly clever, but with a core of love. I adored it’ DAISY BUCHANAN, author of INSATIABLE 
‘Consider me smitten’ CHRIS POWER, author of A LONELY MAN 
‘A marvel of a book that I will never stop thinking about’ ORE AGBAJE-WILLIAMS, author of THE THREE OF US 
'Sweet and tender' PANDORA SYKES, author of HOW DO WE KNOW WE'RE DOING IT RIGHT? 
‘I loved it, I loved them, I already know I will read it again’ ELLA RISBRIDGER, author of MIDNIGHT CHICKEN 
'An exhilarating read, a marvel of a book' RUMAAN ALAM, author of LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND 
‘The platonic ideal of reading experiences!’ LIZZY STEWART, author of ALISON 
‘A true treasure of a novel' ASHLEY AUDRAIN, internationally bestselling author of THE PUSH 
‘Oh, how I loved and empathised with Coralie!’ JENNIE GODFREY, Sunday Times bestselling author of THE LIST OF SUSPICIOUS THINGS 
‘I cried when I read the last page... I was bereft that it was over’ CLAIRE DEDERER, author of MONSTERS 
‘I was grinning like an idiot for the first forty pages, and crying for the next forty’ EMMA HEALEY, million-copy bestselling author of ELIZABETH IS MISSING 
'So well-drawn it was like peering through someone’s kitchen window' CLAIRE DAVERLEY, author of TALKING AT NIGHT 
 
***What happens when you find love, but life keeps getting in the way?When she first meets Adam, Coralie is new to London and feeling adrift. But Adam is clever, witty, and – he insists – half an inch taller than the average British male. His charming four-year-old daughter, Zora, only adds to his appeal.And yet ten years on, something important is missing from the life Coralie and Adam (though let’s face it, mostly Coralie) have built. Or maybe, having gained everything she dreamed of, Coralie has lost something she once had: herself.Set against an eventful decade that included the soap opera of five Prime Ministers plus Brexit and Covid, Consider Yourself Kissed puts the subjects of love and family on a grand stage, bringing to life how the intimate drama in our homes inescapably competes for energy and attention with the shared drama of our times.Consider Yourself Kissed is a captivating portrait of a woman in love which effortlessly balances sweetness with bite, the public with the personal, and humour with heart.*** 
 
‘A love song to women everywhere’ ANNABEL MONAGHAN 
‘A book about falling in love to fall in love with’ LISA OWENS 
‘I absolutely raced through this novel. One of those books you’ll want to give all your friends once you’ve finished’ CLAIRE POWELL 
'I was so invested in the story that I became Coralie!' SANAM MAHLOUDJI 
'A proper grown-up love story' BETH MORREY 
‘Beautiful and life-affirming’ ARAMINTA HALL

Jessica Stanley

Praise for Consider Yourself Kissed

Consider Yourself Kissed is a love story like no other: charming, warm, heartfelt and funny but with a truly razor-like authenticity. I absolutely loved every moment and didn’t want it to end ...

Consider Yourself Kissed is a smart literary love story and an absorbing family drama. Jessica Stanley follows her characters over the years as they make their way in the private, intricate, fra ...

Fabulous . . . It's clever, joyful, familiar and awkward, and so funny.

Consider Yourself Kissed is a love story like no other: charming, warm, heartfelt and funny but with a truly razor-like authenticity. I absolutely loved every moment and didn’t want it to end ...

Consider Yourself Kissed is a smart literary love story and an absorbing family drama. Jessica Stanley follows her characters over the years as they make their way in the private, intricate, fra ...

Fabulous . . . It's clever, joyful, familiar and awkward, and so funny.

Consider Yourself Kissed is a love story like no other: charming, warm, heartfelt and funny but with a truly razor-like authenticity. I absolutely loved every moment and didn’t want it to end ...

Consider Yourself Kissed is a smart literary love story and an absorbing family drama. Jessica Stanley follows her characters over the years as they make their way in the private, intricate, fra ...

Fabulous . . . It's clever, joyful, familiar and awkward, and so funny.

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter