What has love stolen from you?

Love is a Thief.

This is what the new book by Claire Garber tells us. Love stops us doing things we used to do in life: hobbies, habits, interests. You name it. So this book is all about getting that back and becoming you again, rather than just half of a couple in love.

If you liked Bridget Jones' Diary and books similar to that you will LOVE this. It's very fresh and edgy and very funny!

Intrigued? Here's a little sneak peak on the message behind 'Love is a Thief' from Claire herself:

My name is Claire Garber and I am a cliche.

Just before my thirtieth birthday my heart was broken into a million tiny pieces by a Frenchman who resembled a bloody great Gucci model and smelt like a giant bar of chocolate. He was my lobster. But I didn't just fall apart. I shattered like a Faberge egg being lobbed at a concrete wall by a ferocious catapult.

Homeless, jobless and most certainly loveless, I turned up at my dad's house and moved myself in, uninvited, staying there for months, wandering around the house in a threadbare pair of red Adidas tracksuit bottoms and the unwashed T-shirt of my ex. I didn't even wear underwear - who needs pants when you've lost the love of your life? Not me, I just wept and I wept and then I wept some more, unable to form tear-free sentences for the best part of six months. The skin around my eyes has never regained its elasticity.

Because my thirtieth year was the year I realised that I might just be 'that' girl. You know the one. The girl who, for no particular reason, doesn't get the guy, doesn't have children, doesn't get the romantic happy every after. So I needed to come up with a plan. I needed to get back to basics. I needed to ask myself a few important questions:

What did I like doing?

What didn't I get to do because of my last relationship?

What didn't I get to do because I fell in love?

More importantly what would I be happy spending the rest of my life doing if love never showed up again?

Love is a Thief is the end result of that process, not only of asking myself those questions but asking my grandmas, my aunties, my friends, cousins, men, women, those in love, out of love, getting over love, getting into love. Sitting them down and saying:

'If you knew you were going to spend the rest of your life alone, you would never fall in love, never settle down, never have children, what would you want to do? What would make you happy? What would fill up your time, your heart, your soul for the rest of your days? Are you currently doing that thing?'

Love is a Thief is a book about going out and getting back all the things that you stopped doing the day you fell in love.

It's about reconnecting with the part of yourself you lost when you fell in love.

It's about finding a way to eat hundreds of Quality Street Strawberry Creams without getting a fat arse.

My name is Claire Garber, I am a cliche.

Love is a Thief is not.

So now at Mira Ink, we want to know: What has love stolen from you? Anything you wish you had done or kept doing? Or if you were going to spend your life doing something, not in love, what would it be?

'Love is a Thief' is Claire Garber's debut novel and is out in July! Watch this space for more exciting features and fun and games in the run up to the release in July!

Can't wait that long? Follow Claire on twitter: @ClaireGarber

Emily x