Australian-born but London-based Minnie is soaking in the bath to wash away the blues from losing both her lover, Genevieve, and her job. Assessing her condition, she discovers that both her clothes and her politics are out of date. So she rinses off and flies to Australia, seeking comfort from her mother and sisters in Perth and discovering romance and adventure in San Francisco and New York along the way. The cares and problems of her family entertain both Minnie and the reader. And in what is probably a first for a contemporary novel, she finds romance with a female vampire. The writing is bright and funny, and the characters that swirl around anchorless Minnie are quirky but friendly. The story sometimes lifts off and sails through surreal seas but always returns to earth with a bounce . For larger fiction collections.