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Spouses Without Benefits – how can you move on without moving out?
Freya and Joe’s marriage has fizzled its way to the end, but for financial reasons, and to support their daughter in her final year of school, they decide they need to keep living together for six months.
They know it won’t be easy, but for Joe at least, it provides creative rewards: a struggling sitcom writer, he has found his new project. Why not write about his own situation? And the network loves it.
There is just one problem – Freya doesn’t know.
Can Freya and Joe navigate the six months together and might they find out something new about their relationship?
A relatable second-chance romcom perfect for fans of Mike Gayle and Beth O’Leary.
My thanks to Rachel of Rachel’s Random Resources for the tour invite and to Jon Rance for taking the time to provide a guest post. Not Moving Out is published by Hera Books and available in ebook and paperback formats (15 May 2025).
GUEST POST
by Jon Rance
Hello and thank you so much for having me on your blog. I am here today to talk about my new novel, Not Moving Out, which is out on May 15th in eBook and paperback! I thought it would be fun to talk about why I chose to write this book, and where the inspiration came from.
The concept of Not Moving Out, is that Freya and Joe Wallace have decided to end their twenty years marriage. They have a summit in a coffee shop in Brighton, where they live, and come to the conclusion that it is time to separate. There is just one problem – their eighteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, isn’t leaving home for university for another six months and it makes no financial sense for either of them to move out. So, with six months left as a family unit, they decided to keep living together. However, despite both of them agreeing to the plan, all does not go as they expected.
The idea for this novel goes back a year or more. A couple of years ago, I read a few newspaper articles about couples who decided to keep living under the same roof, despite breaking up. Their marriage was over, and suddenly they were housemates, attempting to raise their children together. Most of the cases seemed to be for financial reasons and some for parenting, but this modern family dynamic immediately felt to me like an interesting concept for a novel. I wasn’t sure if it would be more of a drama or a comedy at that point, and I put the idea away while I wrote my last book, One Hundred Moments Of Us.
Over the course of the year I was writing One Hundred Moments Of Us, I saw more articles and online stories about separated couples living together, and I knew it was something I wanted to explore. The spark that really brought the whole thing together for me, was when I had the idea to make Joe a comedy writer, searching for his next big sitcom idea. This led to the book becoming a romantic comedy because I thought it was an interesting idea of him trying to write this sitcom about their situation, trying to find the comedy in their sadness, and I wanted to do the same. I thought that despite the apparent bleakness of the actual situation, I could find comedy within it.
There are a few different elements to the book, and one of the more important ones was that I wanted to give Freya the upper hand when it came to having a flourishing career and being better off financially. When faced with the idea of separation, she is actually the one who is looking forward to the future with some element of positivity, while Joe is terrified. She has a well-paying job, more financial security from a well-off mother, and is stronger emotionally. Joe, on the other hand, has one last shot at writing a sitcom and is seeing a therapist for panic attacks. I think with the whole concept being quite modern, I wanted to play with the idea of traditional gender identity and politics, which I think adds a lot to the book in terms of plot, drama, and humour.
Not Moving Out is, I think, my funniest book, but also the one with the most to say about life in 2025. It is complicated, difficult, fast-paced, but underneath everything, the thing we are all still searching for is love. Thank you so much for reading my blog post and please, if you can, pick up a copy of Not Moving Out.
JON RANCE writes novels about love, family, relationships, and all the messy bits in between. His novels have been described as hilarious, romantic, and perfect for fans of Mike Gayle and Beth O’Leary. His first two books, This Thirtysomething Life and Happy Endings, were published by Hodder and Stoughton. Since then, he has written numerous novels including, Sunday Dinners, Dan And Nat Got Married, and The Worst Man. Jon signed a two-book deal with Hera in 2024 and the first novel, One Hundred Moments Of Us, was published in August 2024. The second book, Not Moving Out, a second chance rom com, will be published in May 2025.
Jon grew up in England and studied English Literature at Middlesex University, London, before travelling the world and meeting his American wife in Australia. He now lives in California with his wife, two kids, and a dog called Pickle, where he writes full-time and drinks far too much tea.
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Purchase Links
https://shorturl.at/L3P3j – Amazon UK
https://shorturl.at/nBE8E – Amazon US
https://shorturl.at/4KRU8 – Waterstones
https://shorturl.at/HfHHl – Apple books
https://shorturl.at/e19Lx – Kobo
