Life never turns out as we expected. But connecting honestly with the one we're really in can bring all sorts of consolation...

I Thought There Would Be Cake explores - with the author's characteristic empathy and humour - some of the everyday issues we face, in order to help us think about how we might live life a little better. With each chapter drawing on personal experience and featuring an original illustration, the topics include:

• taking responsibility (the need to accept failure)
• your crap/my crap (the boundaries between caring and taking on others' worries and stresses)
• what sort of special? (what it means to be unique in a sea of unique people)
• comparisons (the destructiveness of comparing ourselves to other people)
• affirmation (the healthy and unhealthy need)
• inner conflict (believing we can do anything/nothing at all)
• numbers (the power of social media)
• never chosen (finding our value in who we are in each situation, not in the people around us)
• major crisis in a minor moment (keeping things in proportion)
• regret (spending less time evaluating ourselves and more time just being ourselves)

Candid but powerfully reassuring, the book reminds us that we are each made - fearfully and wonderfully - in the image of God, our true source of confidence, comfort and joy.