As maternity leave comes to an end for Heidi Elliott, so does virtually everything else she thought she knew. The substitute filling in for her high school Spanish classes has made a complete mess—not just with her students, but perhaps in a way more personal. Her husband is developing the disconcerting habit of going out of his way to help a beautiful and wealthy client who is all kinds of perky. And now, to further complicate matters, Heidi’s old boyfriend has moved back into the neighborhood. Fiercely independent, Heidi has never been one to ask for help. But when she discovers unexpected camaraderie with a Moms’ Group, Heidi finds herself in a sea of shoulder pads, big hair, and surprisingly strong women who just might hold the lifeline she didn’t think she needed.

    Charlie's sister Daisy, a landscape gardener, is also back home in desperate need of company and some fun. Their great-grandmother, Madge – now in her early nineties – reveals she has a house, Holly Close Farm, mysteriously abandoned over sixty years ago, and persuades the girls to project manage its renovation. As work gets underway, the sisters start uncovering their family's history, and the dark secrets that are hidden at the Farm. A heart-breaking tale of wartime romance, jealousy and betrayal slowly emerges, but with a moral at its end: true love can withstand any obstacle, and, before long, Charlie dares to believe in love again too... Julie Houston's novels are heart-warming, full of joy and completely addictive. Perfect for all fans of Katie Fforde and Jill Mansell.

    So the vibrant market of Champion Street is a source of many a tempting bargain – as well as all the local gossip.Dena loves her Saturday job at Belle Garside’s market café, and her ready smile makes her a universal favourite. She is soon in thrall to Belle’s two good-looking and dangerous sons. But fate has other plans in store when her younger brother is killed by a gang of thugs.Only when it is far too late does Dena begin to ask herself one terrifying question: has she fallen in love with her brother’s killer? A moving saga of second chances and forbidden love set around a bustling café in 1950s Manchester, perfect for fans of Kitty Neale and Ellie Dean. Praise for Putting on the Style 'You can’t put a price on Freda Lightfoot’s stories from Manchester’s 1950s Champion Street Market. They bubble with enough life and colour to brighten up the dreariest day and they have characters you can easily take to your heart’ Northern Echo‘A rattling good read to touch the heart of anyone who has loved someone they shouldn’t have’ Dorset Evening Echo‘Deftly chronicled’ Telegraph & Argus‘Freda Lightfoot’s talent for creating believable characters makes this a page-turning read’ Newcastle Evening Chronicle

    Here the weather is hot and the cowboys and ranchers are even hotter! Something must be in the water, because a rash of weddings is about to hit the good folks of Rancher's Bend!Emma hasn’t had the easiest life. An abusive and alcoholic father taught Emma to guard her heart. She doesn’t do relationships. She doesn’t believe in commitment. And she doesn’t give her trust easily. One of the very few people to earn her trust and friendship is Lynn James.Now Emma’s best friend is getting married in two weeks. Emma returns to the James family ranch to assist with last minute wedding details. The first sign that things might not go as planned occurs when the bride meets Emma at the airport. The bride and groom are going to Mexico City as part of an earthquake search and rescue mission. That leaves Emma, and Lynn’s older brother to handle any wedding issues.Well-laid plans quickly deteriorate. Lynn and Bruce are incommunicado. Emma and Landon are forced to spend more and more time together as they try to salvage Lynn's wedding plans. Now thanks to fate and a series of small disasters, the wedding is becoming custom made for Emma and Landon.The chemistry between Emma and Landon is explosive, and they fight the rising attraction. Both have avoided serious relationships for very different reasons. That's about to change. The more time they spend together, the closer they become. Will they be able to overcome their insecurities and lack of trust? Do they love each other enough to become the accidental bride and groom?

    Now that Sparrow, her ward, has reached nine years of age, she reckons he needs a male role model in his life. With typical efficiency she sets about finding a father-figure by drawing up a series of checklists for each candidate, and following a strict protocol for interviewing them.So far, all the contenders have failed miserably to get enough ticks in the right boxes. But Ferne is focused and nothing is going to stop her from fulfilling her responsibilities…...except maybe a saboteur out to wreck her business; drunken neighbours; her unfortunate past from which it is so difficult to escape; her estranged mother; long-lost sister; and her Jack Russell, Merrie, who is not above galloping over and nipping any prospective role models she thinks Will Not Do.Katie Fforde (best-selling rom com author and President of the Romantic Novelists' Association) said of 'All His Own Hair': 'Susan Alison handles difficult issues with quirky humour and uplifting results.'(To give you some idea of length - 'White Lies and Custard Creams' is 83,700 words long and 'All His Own Hair' is 87,300 words long.)Susan Alison is the Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner for 2011. She has won competition awards for short fiction and sold numerous stories to commercial publications. Her fiction concentrates on the relationships humans forge with each other (and quite often with their dogs). She is a freelance artist.Jill Mansell (best-selling rom com author) said of 'White Lies and Custard Creams': "Susan Alison has written a lovely, quirky romp packed with off-the-wall characters - original, intriguing and great fun!"

    But when things don't go to plan her dreams of seeing her face on billboards are shattered, and she is forced to pick up the pieces and start again.

    Expat Bronte McKnight is in the early days of her love affair with charismatic doctor Leonidas Papachristou. But as Bronte tries to live and love like a Greek, the economic crisis spawns an unlikely predator in the village. While she begins to question her sunny existence in Greece, an old love from Leonidas’s past also makes a troubling appearance. Now working as a freelance journalist, when Bronte is offered an interview with a famous novelist, and part-time expat, it seems serendipitous. But the encounter becomes a puzzle that takes her deep into the wild Mani region of the southern Peloponnese, for which she enlists the help of her maverick father Angus, and the newest love of her life, Zeffy, the heroic rescue dog. The challenges Bronte faces bring dramatic as well as humorous outcomes as she tries to find a foothold in her Greek paradise. But can she succeed?

    It seems like it’s going to be always the cakemaker, never the bride until charming photographer Noah arrives on the scene…Sowing Secrets tells the story of Fran, who seems to have it all with her lovely husband and cottage in the country. That is until ex-boyfriend Tom turns up and Fran’s perfect world is turned upside down.Life is sweet for chocolate maker Chloe in Chocolate Wishes. That is until the new vicar Raffy arrives in the village; Chloe’s first love and the man who broke her heart…

    When disaster strikes, threatening to ruin Cher’s wedding, her best friend, Sybil comes up with a plan. Can the villagers and the sew solid crew from Hettie’s House of Haberdashery and their Singer sewing machines save the big day to give Cher her perfect, country wedding?

     Laurel Ashwood needs a miracle. All her six-week old daughter wants for Christmas is a daddy...just for the holidays while Nana visits from Montana. Laurel and her former boss, construction tycoon Nick St. John, used to share a chemistry. But will Nick want to cooperate? Six months ago, she’d left him without a word. Nick can’t believe Laurel is back. Now he can finish what they’d begun months before. But he won’t accept a “couple of days.” If Laurel wants him to play along with a fake engagement, he’s got his own naughty and nice list. A kiss under the mistletoe is just the beginning.

    But she lost the man, and got a baby instead… Six months ago, Ruth Robinson had a regular job, a monthly salary and a comfortable flat to go home to. After quitting her job ready to go travelling, a momentary lapse of judgement put a major spanner in the works… Now Ruth has a baby on the way and no place to call home… With the father of her child AWOL and her parents less than impressed, Ruth decides to move in with her eccentric uncles. And when the Virgin Mary appears in their hen house, it is clear Ruth’s unplanned pregnancy isn’t the only ‘miracle’ she’ll be encountering this year… RUTH ROBINSON’S YEAR OF MIRACLES is a hilarious, off-beat, (anti) romantic comedy full of quirky characters and family dramas. An uplifting read, full of humour, wit and tear-jerking reality, from a strong voice in women’s fiction. 'a most engaging novel... Frances Garrood is a talented writer' - Andrew Davies ‘Frances Garrood is a magnificent writer’ - thebookbag.co.uk

    1 Bestseller.Fenella and Rupert are organising the perfect Christmas, surrounded by their friends in their beautiful Somerby house.Until Fenella gets a phone call from her ghastly parents-in-law asking if they can join them for the holiday. Fenella couldn't possibly refuse and besides, it could be worse.But when they arrive and the house is suddenly plunged in darkness thanks to a power cut, Fenella knows she has her work cut out to keep everyone happy and pull off the perfect Christmas feast.Plus the first chance to read the opening chapter of Katie's novel, A Secret Garden.

     For the ever-so dashing Lord of the Manor Tobias Cavendish-Blake and his new wife Megan, it's a great advertising opportunity as they've recently opened up their home, Treweham Hall, to the public. And for the chef at the local pub The Templar, Finula, the arrival of the brooding director Marcus Devlin, means her love life is looking up. Whilst at the racing stables, jockey and trainer Dylan Delaney is hoping the exposure will help him find new owners and horses for him and his partner Flora to train. But there is more to Marcus Devlin than meets the eye, and he has very personal reasons for heading to the Cotswolds. And once his plans become clear, life in Treweham may never be the same again. 'I couldn't put this book down and was gripped from the very first page! I was so engulfed in the characters and life in Treweham, that I actually felt a little lost when I had finished it' Amazon reviewer on A Country Scandal.

    Have these knots in my stomach. But drinking isn’t an option. Maa is sleeping with me. Baba in Lalitaji’s room. And she on the sofa. Want to step into the toilet, take one swig, and then go directly to sleep. How the hell will Maa know? I mean she’s sleeping like a log. No, no, shouldn’t. What if she wakes up? She’s a light sleeper, after all.11.30 pm: No wine. Or vodka. Terrible, terrible night. When will they go back to Kolkata and let me be?11.32 pm: Chhi . . .Chhi . . . How selfish am I? My parents, one with a heart condition, spent thousands on flight tickets and landed in Chennai. Why? Because they wanted to spend time with their widowed daughter. And what does the daughter want? To sneak into the toilet and take one good swig of wine. Shame on her! Okay, now I’m being over-dramatic.Meet Madhubala Ray a thirty-year-old brand-spanking-new widow in Chennai.She lives with her seventy-year-old mostly-silent MIL—whose name she can’t remember, teaches Social Science to bratty teenagers, and suddenly has a life filled with unpredictable men, catty colleagues, a bisexual best friend, and . . . heart-wrenching memories of her late husband.How does she deal with all of that?By baring it all, in her diary. Join this oddball-widow who always keeps it real as she gives an honest account of a young North Indian working woman in Chennai, who tries to survive a tragedy through wine and vodka, her quirky sense of humour, and refuses to give up on love. Despite its oddities. The question is: does she survive and find love, again?Secret Diary of an Incurable Romantic is a story that is brutally honest, funny, romantic and liberating. It’s a slice of life, you wouldn’t want to miss.

    Though they were born within three minutes of each other and spent their childhoods dressed in matching outfits, they’ve grown up to have less in common than Kim Kardashian and the Duchess of Cambridge. So both women are horrified when a luggage mix-up means that sensible Clare must attend a company conference in the United States with Rosie’s suitcase full of pink, frills and stripper heels, while flamboyant Rosie heads for a friend’s destination wedding in Italy's Tuscany with Clare’s case full of suiting and sensible courts. Both believe wearing the other’s clothes is going to ruin their chances: Clare’s of getting a promotion and Rosie’s of getting a snog. But as three days of literally having to walk in each other’s shoes unfold, will the sisters discover they should try to be more like each other after all? This exclusive new novella (short novel at around 100 pages) by Chrissie Manby explores sisterhood, identity and love in a thoroughly summery way.