Bachelor Boys

As the child of remote, chilly parents, Cassie reveled in the exuberant chaos she found at the home of the Darlings—two boys, a cheerful father, and a glorious mother, Phoebe, who welcomed the lonely little girl next door into their family circle.

Now Cassie is all grown up, the editor of a highly respectable literary magazine, with a well-ordered life and a suitable boyfriend. But her beloved Phoebe is dying and comes to Cassie with one last request: Will Cassie help find wives for her sons, two gorgeous, sexy, but wildly impractical bachelors still living in their mother’s basement flat?

Heartbroken at the thought of losing Phoebe, Cassie cannot refuse—but how will she ever find decent girlfriends, let alone wives, for the Darling boys? It’s all very well for Phoebe to insist they are lovely boys who are absolutely sweet to their mother, but who else would see either one as husband material: Fritz, a handsome medical student turned unemployed actor; or Ben, a dreamy, soulful musician who is too “sensitive” to perform or teach? Even Cassie, she tells Phoebe firmly right from the start, is not prepared to marry one of these bachelor boys. . . .

Kate Saunders has written a story about love and loss that is moving, wise, and wickedly funny.