Thirty Days with You

Tânia Marques, thirty-three, English teacher, born and raised in Portugal, takes a leap of faith and decides to do something for herself - after years of trying to live up to everyone else's expectations. On the last day of November, she boards a plane for Byanbyan-Ma, where she intends to spend the entire month of December working on a novel - her very own writer's retreat. All she wants is to be by herself, but on her very first day in Xhiangzhei, she walks into a café as it's about to close, and strikes up a conversation with the owner...

Huang DaeLun, twenty-nine, architect, co-owner of a small café in Xhiangzhei, has never been lucky in love. In fact women regard him as a friend, never a lover, or prospective boyfriend. He's made peace with that - sort of - and isn't looking for romantic attachments, far too scared of getting his heart broken again. But on the first day of December, as he's about to lock up his café, a tourist walks in, looking to buy the hand pies the place is famous for. And she returns the next day...

Ruth Miranda is a Portugal born and raised author who feels more comfortable around words than people, especially if those words happen to be in English, a language she once taught for a living - amongst other varied jobs. She started making up stories in her head as a child, to put herself to sleep, but the stories kept growing with her, so eventually, they needed to be put to paper.