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Life is short. Sometimes you have to take a chance.

Two single parents, Frankie and Scott, meet unexpectedly. Their homes are far apart: Frankie lives with her children on the North Norfolk coast, Scott in the mountains of British Columbia. Yet though thousands of miles divide them, a million little things connect them. A spark ignites, a recognition so strong that it dares them to take a risk.

For two families, life is about to change. But no-one could have anticipated how.

With almost 300 5 star reviews online, readers and critics are falling in love with The Turning Point :

‘Keep the tissues close…a gripping love story’ Good Housekeeping

Share with us your experiences of long-distance relationships and one lucky poster will win a copy of The Turning Point plus one of 17 Virgin couples experiences

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This discussion is sponsored by Harper Collins

"Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and blows up the fire."This is quote which kept me going and helped me to believe that long distance relationships will show how strong our love is and how our relationships will end.Even after proposal on St Valentine's Day at Eiffel Tower I wasn't sure that our love on distance will work.But 9 years later we are married, have two wonderful,very cheeky and bit crazy sons and we have our magical ever after !

I met a guy when I was in second year in uni, and we stayed together for the next six years. He moved halfway across the country for work experience for six months when I was in third year, and the day he moved back, I moved to France to start my Masters. We were in the same place then for six months until he got offered a job in the company he'd done his work experience with, so he took it and moved two hours away again. Six months after that, I started my doctorate in London.
We did Ireland-London for two and a half years, but neither of us was really getting what we wanted out of the relationship, and eventually it became too hard to sustain. I loved him very much, but looking back, we dragged things out much longer than we should have - I was truly miserable for the last six months before I called it a day. Long distance is hard work, and you both have to be willing to put in far more concentrated and organised effort than otherwise. The times when it worked, it was really lovely, and I don't regret my relationship with him, but it made me miserable a lot more than it made me happy.

DH and I got together when we lived 2 hours apart. We saw each other every other weekend for a year or so then DH got a job in my home town and we've been together ever since. It was fine at the time because we were just at the start of our relationship - we both made an effort to make the weekends together really special but I'm glad the long distance element didn't last longer than a year

I met my partner when he was on detached duty, we met up at weekends and then eventually managed to get a transfer. :)

I am living a long distance relationship. We are both French and I live in the UK and he lived in Paris France. We have a beautiful daughter who is now 3 years old and still live apart. We both have a past with children. At the moment it works for us. The next chapter has not been writing yet. We decided to live in the moment for now.

My DP lived 50 miles away from me for the first year and a bit. We met online and he at first had his son on weekends when I would be there so we kept it very casual in front of him, which was difficult but as we became more serious things naturally progresses. Almost a year a go DP moved in with me and within a week DP's ex asked him to have DSS full time. It was a bit of baptism by fire, suddenly having an instant family in my house but we have grown together to know each other's quirks and bringing up a gorgeous little boy together has only made us stronger!

I was once in a relationship with a guy from Belfast - I'm in Aberdeen! It was crazy. Whirlwind romance when we finally met, but we met online and talked for a few months before that happened. We were together for about 11 months, visiting each other every 3-5 weeks for anything between a weekend and a fortnight at a time. It worked fairly well until my depression got too much and he 'couldn't take it' so he disappeared and started talking 3 weeks later after my birthday and had crappy excuses for his silence. By this time, I had accepted that I'd lost him, got help and spent the next 8 months being screwed over by him mentally before meeting my now DH in the February after this happened. 6 years later and I'm 2 weeks from giving birth to a child we never thought we could have. As Mrs Brown says, things always work out the way they're supposed to.

Mine was very long distance - UK to Australia! We met in Europe when we were both working abroad and we're together for months. Then he had to go back to Oz, I was meant to flow but had an accident and couldn't. We kept in touch via phone calls and letters for 2 years but we're both skint. A year after that I went on holiday and while I was away he phoned my parents looking for me do mum gave him my number. This was before mobiles, emails etc and as they went on holiday before I got home I didn't know he'd phoned. Next thing he calls me from the UK as he'd saved and come over to see me. I was already seeing XH (who answered the phone) and had to say I couldn't meet him - biggest regret ever. If we'd had mobiles I'd have called him back when I was alone as my heart did still belong to hi I'm and if I'd met him I would probably have known one way or the other. Not fair to XH I know but I had put my Aussie man out of my mind as I'd thought we'd never see each other again. Unfortunately I never heard from him again and due to house moves (and I suspect XH) his address got mislaid. Still think of him 20 years later!

Ultra long distance, was an old friend/fame who circumstances lead us being together again 7 years ago after twice as long apart. Last week he announced he does have plans to move to the UK again.........but wants 'me' time, and won't consider anything other than 'friendship'. I've told him I'm not an 'option for when he's lonely/he doesn't get off with another woman (looking like another relationship failed through male mid life crisis - a lough a bit late to be calling it 'mid' life - ha!) and I'm currently nursing a broken heart. Have loves him all my adult life and now this - bollocks to him

I met my husband on the internet back in October 2002! We lived 183 miles away from each other.
We didn't last long at that distance though and I ended up moving to be with him in Feb 2003!

Mine was when I was a student. He lived on the other side of the country and wasn't capable of the commitment to not cheat over the summer holidays when we weren't seeing each other all the time.

I met my husband one week after moving to Mexico for what was supposed to be a 12 week trip to learn Spanish. We were complete opposites- I was serious, professional, Veggie and 6 years his senior. He was a classic skater bmx boy, never had a proper job. It was, as my Gran put it drunkenly at my hen do 'lust at first sight!' Language barriers didn't seem to be an issue- and luckily I'm a quick linguist! Within 3 months we were living together, within 5 we had adopted a street dog, but everything was with the looming deadline of my return to the UK- I had extended to a year but needed to return for my Masters.
A week before I left, he proposed and although I was worried he was too young, I was so in love I said yes.
We spoke every night on Skype and messaged constantly whilst trying to get everything in place for his fiancé visa. However, due to the endless paperwork we failed on a technicality for his first visa. It was devastating and also meant that he nearly didn't get let into the uk for a Christmas holiday to see me- luckily the immigration lady who spoke to me on the phone was sympathetic and we spent a wonderful six weeks together. It made us even more determined to be together. Once our paperwork was in order we reapplied and I flew to Mexico to be with him when he got the decision, as it was so awful being apart the first time. And he got the visa!! We got married in the summer 2013 and despite still many stresses and cultural differences we are still going strong, with a little house, another rescue mutt and now our very own precious baby boy. As a close mutual friend once said; you both shouldn't work on paper, everything was against you, but you are proof that sometimes you just have to go for it.

I met my partner through work and we have been together for 4 years this year. We have survived a year of long distance relationship through university while we were at other ends of the country, 4 months of travelling and currently he is in Brazil for a year honing his spanish. I'm hoping that when he comes back that will be it for a while and we can enjoy just being with each other. I miss him terribly at times and it's frustrating, but I wouldn't want to be without him, he's my rock and makes me a better person

All my relationships were long distance - oh dear.

Eventually I settled but e worked away a lot. I actually prefer it to having someone living on top of me.

I fell in love with a guy from the country where I was travelling after uni. We had an amazing summer together and then I had to come back to the UK to do a further uni course. He came to visit.Then he had to finish his degree in his country (4 years). I went to visit. Then we got married. Then he had to do military service (2 years) and I went to visit again when his army allowed. (This was all in the days befor internet and cheap phone calls. I still have all the letters he sent me)

After seven years we managed to stay in the same country with each other for long enough to conceive ds1.

Twenty five years later we are still in the same country, house and currently sitting on the same sofa and we haven't been apart for longer than a week since then.

When I was a student I had a long distant relationship. We would talk on the phone daily (there was no texting / Facebook etc!) and meet up most weekends. He'd also write to me which is quite romantic I guess!
It didn't last though - not because of the distance but because he was a childish git!!!!

DP and I met when he worked in the city and I lived a few hours away in his hometown. I had my DS already by that point. He would come to me every weekend that he could as he shared a house in the city so taking DS there wasn't always an option. It started very casual. Eventually we ended up on the phone every single night and telling each other how much we missed each other and what we had been up to. I worked evenings and weekends most of the time so that ate into a lot of the free time he had to come and see us.
One night I had a break down and he told me he wanted to stay on the phone with me until I fell asleep. I agreed and kept one earphone in. I woke up the next morning to him saying he had to go to work and he would miss me and it was very very comforting. We ended up doing that every night from then on. It was handy because one night I woke up crying due to a nightmare and he immediately woke up, calmed me down and we both went back to sleep. I found I slept much better knowing he was as close as he could be.
We moved in together after almost 2 years of being together and not much has changed really. I thought it would be easier but we still have to actually put a lot of effort in to spend quality time together due to work.
I definitely love the fact that I don't have an earphone in my ear to hear him snoring now though. I can cuddle up as much as I want. It definitely makes me far more appreciative of having him next to me at night.

I met my husband at university and we lived together for the 3 years of our degree, having to separate during the long university summer as neither of us had the cash to travel to see each other (he lived 4 hours away from me). When we graduated, we went back to our respective counties and continued our relationship through phone, email and texts. It was really hard as we'd both got so used to living together. We met up once a month but it wasn't always possible as I worked a weekday job and he worked weekends and nights. After just over a year, he made the bold decision to move down here, leaving his friends and family behind. We lived with my parents while we saved to buy a house. Long distance definitely tested our relationship and made us both pretty miserable but it was necessary while we tried to save money and make some big decisions. Now, 11 years after meeting at uni, we have our own house, are happily married and have our first baby on the way!

I met my DH online when we were 15. I was living in America and he was living near Manchester. We met for the first time in person when we were 17 when he flew over to spend part of the Christmas holidays with me. He continued to fly over every major holiday pretty much and then after I graduated from High School, he spent Christmas with us right before my 19th birthday and then we went to England together. It was my first time ever being away from parents and my first time on an airplane. I celebrated most of my "firsts" with him, he was my first boyfriend, first kiss, etc. We moved back and forth between England and America, pretty much spending three months in each place, which is the maximum you can stay without a visa. We then got engaged on my birthday when I was 20 and married in April when I was 21 after we got a K3 fiancée visa for him to live in America. His mother's health took a turn for the worse and DH was finding it difficult coping in America, especially as he had no outside help with his disability and so we then decided to move to England and have been living here since. We just celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary.

I have been in two long distance relationships. The first he lived in London and I lived in Edinburgh, we traveled up and down every second weekend but it only lasted about a year.

My current relationship was long-ish distance for the first year before I got a new job and moved into DP's flat. We were about 1.5 hours away from each other (on public transport) but due clashing work schedules, it was only really feasible to see each other at the weekend. We saw each other every single weekend without fail for 364 days then I moved in with him the day before our first anniversary. That was three years ago and we're getting married next week

I met someone on a night out in my hometown in the Midlands 7.5 years ago. He was from Northern Ireland and was only over for one day and night for a football match.
We swapped numbers and spoke for hours on end for a few months before deciding we would quite like to meet up again. ( something about him , probably the accent!).
Two years later he moved over here, 2.5 years after that we tied the knot back in NI as my parents refused to acknowledge him.
Two years later I'm sat on the sofa with our 18 month old DD in my lap

I met my partner 8 years ago online. He lived in London and I'm in Derby and we talked and emailed everyday. I was in a relationship at the time and his relationship had just ended. We met up eventually after 3 months of communication and he made the move to derby 13 months later. It was hard and expensive seeing each other only at weekend's but we managed. We talked about ending it because his ex was being difficult and living so far away from each other didn't really feel like proper relationship but we're still together 8 years later and couldn't be happier. And his family and friends said it wouldn't last!

I had a long distance relationship with dh before we were married as I lived abroad for some time while he was here. We phoned every day but it was stressful and almost broke us up. I'm so glad we managed to get through it and we have stayed in the same country ever since! Maybe it's easier now with Facebook and Skype, we didn't have that and it cost us a fortune to keep in contact

My husband and I had been friends for a while, but waited until we were at different universities (at opposite ends of the country), before we got together (sigh). We made it through a couple of years before going travelling together and as they say the rest is history!

I had a long distance relationship when my boyfriend and I went to different universities. It was harder back then, no mobile phones and the first uni flat I lived in just had payphones in a communal area. That payphone served all 4 flats in the building so other students would get annoyed with me if I stayed on the phone too long I didn't even have my own computer and had to use the computing labs on campus to send him an email.

We stayed together for the first couple of years, but we drifted apart over time and eventually things fizzled out. It must be easier now with more ways to stay in touch.