BF1 ORIGINAL FICTION
MINOR DEFECTS
After thirteen years running a beautiful Herefordshire guesthouse, Caroline and Stuart Waddington must decide whether saving their struggling business is worth losing the marriage and future they built it to protect.
ABOUT THE STORY
From the outside, Orchard End is everything Caroline and Stuart Waddington once dreamed of: a beautiful country guesthouse, glowing reviews and a steady stream of visitors who leave believing its owners have the perfect life.
Behind the welcoming smiles, the picture is rather different.
After thirteen years of early breakfasts, late-night bookings and endless repairs, Caroline is exhausted. The finances are increasingly precarious, the roof is failing, and the approaching bank review threatens the future of everything they have built. Stuart, meanwhile, still believes another good idea might turn things around.
When a talented guest chef helps them introduce a series of intimate supper evenings, a new possibility emerges. The dining room fills, the guests are delighted, and for a moment Caroline remembers what it feels like to enjoy working alongside her husband.
But success comes at a cost, and the couple's unspoken differences are becoming harder to ignore. As private decisions and financial pressures push their marriage towards a reckoning, Caroline and Stuart must confront a question neither has wanted to ask.
What if the life they worked so hard to build is no longer the life either of them truly wants?
MINOR DEFECTS is a moving, quietly witty novel about marriage, invisible labour, second chances and finding the courage to let go of something you still love.