Sarah Peterson has dumped her firefighter boyfriend Jason, given up her job in the city and moved back to the place she calls home. The night before she moves out of her apartment she discovers an old tape from an 18th birthday party she attended. The tape is of a clairvoyant reading she had done, but Sarah couldn’t remember the reading due to being so drunk.

The clairvoyant tells Sarah how her life will progress in the next 15 years. Listening to it, twelve years after it was recorded, Sarah discovers everything the clairvoyant told her would happen, has, even to her moving back home and her new adventure. She also tells her that a new man will come into her life, this is the man for her. His name is Steven.

Now Sarah is seeing Steven’s everywhere, starting with the window cleaner for her new florist shop, ‘Flowers’ gifted to her by her Aunty Kay who is off travelling around the world.

But with her eye on local man Nick, and her ex-boyfriend Jason turning up declaring his undying love for her, is Steven really the man for her?

Searching for Steven is an amusing look at one woman who desperately believes in love trying to find her happily-ever-after, she just needs to find the right man first and it seems that Steven is the one, well a clairvoyant has told her he is the one and everything else she told her has come true.

Sarah is a lovely young woman. I enjoyed getting to know her and follow her on her quest for true love. She also has two great best friends Claire and Elise (they can’t stand another). They are polar opposites. Claire is the posh, doesn’t want to settle down, likes to play the field, sceptical type woman who doesn’t believe a word that the clairvoyant has told Sarah. Elise married her true love many years ago, she is a big believer in ‘the one’ and a believer in what the clairvoyant had to say too.

With Steven’s everywhere, including those she meets via internet dating – I suppose it makes it easier to choose when you’re going by name and nothing else – surely there must be one with the right name waiting for her, but none seem right.

Searching for Steven is a great start to the ‘Welcome to Whitsborough Bay’ series. Jessica Redland’s writing is superb and the plot held my interest the whole way through. Does she end up with a Steven? You will have to read it yourself to find out.

About the Author

Jessica had never considered writing as a career until a former manager kept telling her that her business reports read more like stories and she should write a book. She loved writing but had no plot ideas. Then something happened to her that prompted the premise for her debut novel, Searching for Steven. She put fingers to keyboard and soon realised she had a trilogy and a novella!

She lives on the stunning North Yorkshire Coast – the inspiration for the settings in her books – with her husband, daughter, cat, Sprocker Spaniel, and an ever-growing collection of collectible teddy bears. Although if the dog has her way, the collection will be reduced to a pile of stuffing and chewed limbs!

Jessica tries to balance her time – usually unsuccessfully – between being an HR tutor and writing.