The Flip Side: A Novel

James Bailey

Nov 2020 · HarperCollins

About this ebook

“Romcom fans will fall in love with the cheeky charm and wry wit of . . . a delightfully bloke-centered counterpart to Bridget Jones and her diary.” —Booklist

To coin a phrase, Josh is suffering a quarter-life crisis. He just broke up with his long-term girlfriend, lost his job, and moved back home with his parents (shudder). Welcome to rock bottom in Bristol. As Josh starts questioning all his life choices, he has a mad thought: Maybe he would just be better flipping a coin. After all, careful planning has landed him homeless, jobless, and single.

What starts as a joke soon becomes serious and Josh decides to start putting his faith in the capriciousness of currency. He doesn’t have anything to lose.

But when the chance of a lifetime and the girl of his dreams are on the line, will the coin guide him to a rich love life or leave him flat broke?

“British author Bailey presents a heartwarming, laugh-out-loud hilarious debut rom-com. . . . Fans of Beth O’Leary and Nick Hornby will relish every delightful moment.” —Library Journal

Ratings and reviews

THE FLIP SIDE by James Bailey is a contemporary, adult , stand alone story line focusing on twenty-eight year old Josh as he navigates the game of life with the flip of a coin. Told from first person point of view (Josh) THE FLIP SIDE follows Josh, a hotel employee, who plans an extravagant proposal on New Year’s Eve for his girl friend of four years but disaster and heart break ensue when Josh discovers said girlfriend has fallen in love with another man. Unemployed (having worked for his girlfriend’s father) and now homeless (having lived in said girlfriend’s apartment), Josh finds a fifty-pence coin, and resolves that every decision for the next year will be determined by the toss of the coin. From trivia nights to marathons, to meeting a stranger at an art gallery, then a tour through Europe searching for said stranger, Josh sets out to find love but the coin toss threatens his tentative hold on a new found relationship. Touted as a rom-com, THE FLIP SIDE reads like a version of Bridget Jones Diary, only down on her luck Bridget is a twenty-eight year old man/child named Josh, who along with his intrepid and well-meaning but often immature group of friends discovers that life’s choices cannot be controlled by the flip of a coin. A slow building story line THE FLIP SIDE is a sweet and charming story where the romance is limited-the hero spends most of the story searching for a woman he knows little about, and the comedic aspect IMHO, struggles to take hold.

About the author

James Bailey was born in Bristol, England, and currently lives and works in his home city. A graduate of King's College London, James has previously carried the Olympic torch, made a speech at the House of Commons, and worked as a red-carpet reporter. The Flip Side is his debut novel.