Someone Else's Shoes, by Jojo Moyes: Not since Cinderella has a pair of shoes caused so much drama

And while over time it has become more unappealing and unrealistic that Prince Charming only recognises his one true love when she's wearing a certain shoe, it does make you wonder how a sliding doors moment could be tied to a shoe.

Or in the case of Someone Else's Shoes, by Jojo Moyes, tied to two pairs of shoes.

The Me Before You author follows two women, Sam and Nisha, whose lives become tied when they accidentally switch bags - and shoes - at the gym one day.

The pair couldn't be more opposite.

Sam is a suburban mum, whose husband has lost his job and struggles to leave the couch due to his depression. She's just clinging to her job, and she's feeling the pressure from needing to do everything for her family. In a bid to carve out some time for herself, she decides to use a voucher for a gym and spa that she received for her birthday.

For Sam, it's a treat, a little bit of luxury that she could only afford with a voucher. But for Nisha - a woman who has everything she has ever dreamed of and more - it's the type of gym that she only deigns to go to. If it wasn't for the fact that there are too many people in London to run on the streets, and that her the hotel is upgrading its facilities, she wouldn't be there at all. There's a certain standard that she has grown accustomed to, and this particular gym and spa don't meet that.

Nisha lives an incredible international lifestyle, with a phenomenally rich husband and she is used to travelling across the world to wherever he is most needed for work. And this particular day started as it should have. That was, until she was mid-workout and received a phone call from her husband, Carl. To anyone else, it would have seemed like a normal phone call, but from Carl's relaxed and blasé approach to lunch plans, Nisha knows something is not right.

From there, things don't seem to go right for Nisha. She discovers her bag, containing her custom Christian Louboutins, has been taken while she was in the showers and an everyday bag containing an everyday pair of shoes has been left in its place.

Her day only gets worse when she arrives back at her hotel - dressed in only a robe from the gym - and she has been locked out of their penthouse room. Carl is wanting a divorce and isn't letting her access any of her things. In a matter of hours, she went from having everything she could ever want, to only having a bag full of someone else's possessions.

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Meanwhile, not too far away, Sam discovers minutes before a business meeting that what she thought was her bag contains a pair of designer shoes - she'd rushed out of the gym not even changing from the spa's complimentary thongs as she did so. Not wanting to wear the thongs to the meeting, she puts on very high, very nice shoes and something comes over her.

While they take a bit of getting used to - Sam can't remember the last time she wore stilettos - she feels like a new woman. What's more, people start looking at her differently.

As we step into the different worlds of these two women - no matter what footwear they've got on - we see that things aren't always as they seem on the surface, no matter how much money you have.

Moyes makes it seem that a pair of shoes can change everything, and while it feels superficial to begin with - it can be the difference between succeeding at work or not, it can be the difference between getting a fair divorce settlement or not - there is a thread of drama running through the book that links back to those custom Louboutins.

And surrounding this thread, we have an exploration of class differences and female friendship. While there are certainly romantic relationships within the book, it's the friendships between the women that promote these ride-or-die connections that in a lot of ways, are stronger and more reliable than those with the men in their lives.

And when you have nothing else, you realise just how valuable that can be.

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