# Before My Actual Heart Breaks by Tish Delaney (Paperback)

**WINNER OF THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD**  
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**'Fresh, entertaining, funny and moving'** RODDY DOYLE  
  
**'A touching tale of how one woman survives a tough beginning to eventually end up exactly where her heart belongs'** ANNE GRIFFIN, author of _When All is Said_  
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**'If I could go back to being sixteen again, I'd do things differently.'**  
**'Everyone over the age of forty feels like that, you total _gom_,' says my best friend Lizzie Magee.**  
  
When she was young Mary Rattigan wanted to _fly_. She was going to take off like an angel from heaven and leave the muck and madness of troubled Northern Ireland behind. Nothing but the Land of Happy Ever After would do for her.  
  
But as a Catholic girl with a B.I.T.C.H. for a Mammy and a silent Daddy, things did not go as she and Lizzie Magee had planned.  
  
Now, five children, twenty-five years, an end to the bombs and bullets, enough whiskey to sink a ship and _endless_ wakes and sandwich teas later, Mary's alone. She's learned plenty of hard lessons and missed a hundred steps towards the life she'd always hoped for.  
  
Will she finally find the courage to ask for the love she deserves? Or is it too late?

## Details

- **Price:** 9.99 GBP
- **Vendor:** Penguin Books
- **Tags:** All Books, Romance

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 9.99 GBP | In stock |

## Images

- Before My Actual Heart Breaks by Tish Delaney book cover

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> Updated: 2026-09-19