Playing with Matches


Hannah Orenstein - 2018
    But when her dream career falls through, she uses her family’s darkest secret to land a job as a matchmaker for New York City’s elite at the dating service Bliss.Despite her inexperience, Sasha throws herself into her new career, trolling for catches on Tinder, coaching her clients through rejection, and dishing out dating advice to people twice her age. She sets up a TV exec who wanted kids five years ago, a forty-year-old baseball-loving virgin, and a consultant with a rigorous five-page checklist for her ideal match.Sasha hopes to find her clients The One, like she did. But when Jonathan betrays her, she spirals out of control—and right into the arms of a writer with a charming Southern drawl, who she had previously set up with one of her clients. He’s strictly off-limits, but with her relationship on the rocks, all bets are off.Fresh, sweet, and laugh-out-loud funny, Playing with Matches is the addictive story about dating in today’s swipe-heavy society, and a young woman trying to find her own place in the world.

Fate and Ms. Fortune


Saralee Rosenberg - 2006
    All I did was show up at a family bar mitzvah and cue lightning... this huge storm blew in.My mom announced she was leaving my dad and moving in with me. (Perfect! More competition on JDate.) I found out my boss planned to fire me. (Help wanted: Be the exclusive makeup artist for a two-faced network news star.) My ex's gambling debts left me near bankruptcy. (Please buy our wedding gifts on craigslist.) But, good news. I was offered money to date a man who had worse luck than me. (Dear Visa, I hope you appreciate that I said yes.)If not for my friend Rachel, I would have chickened out. Instead, I went to his apartment, spotted an old photo, and realized it was HIM! The boy I was mad for in college but never got to meet. And get this! Turns out our paths had been crossing since birth.Coincidence or karma? Our finagling families wouldn't talk... until the day destiny sent me on a wild ride that became my long lost spiritual journey.Ladies, take my advice. When fate knocks, answer the damn door!

The Mercury Travel Club


Helen Bridgett - 2017
    My husband ran off with the caterer we hired for our daughter’s graduation party – pleased to meet you.’Meet Angie Shepherd who, after 24 years and 11 months of marriage, finds herself divorced and driven by friends and family to move on. From hangover to makeover, Angie steps firmly away from the sensible knitwear, and launches into every adventure on offer – from baking classes and book groups, to speed dating, and even ‘The Granny-Okes’, a 1980s tribute act and YouTube sensation.But Angie needs more than a bar of galaxy and a night in with Murder She Wrote... what she dreams of is entrepreneurial success. Channelling her inner Richard Branson, the light bulb moment happens: it’s time to take the plunge and invest her divorce settlement into The Mercury Travel Club, an exciting new business venture. But as the Travel Club gets going, things never go according to plan, and in this digital age a little chaos brings the fame she’s been looking for.Set in present-day Manchester, this classic mid-life journey features the 1980s soundtrack from Angie’s youth, and sees her travel the world whilst coping with life after the Ex. Angie’s journey is the catalyst her friends need to examine their own lives; as they start to find their true callings, will Angie find hers? Witty, entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny, this feel-good debut novel shows it’s never too late for a second

Weight Till Christmas


Ruth Saberton - 2013
    At least she will if she can squeeze into her party dress...Without a fairy godmother to wave a magic wand, Ellie Summers needs more than a pumpkin to impress her gorgeous boss. She works hard, not as a scullery maid but as a super sassy saleswoman, but he doesn't notice her. Their company's lavish Christmas party is the opportunity Ellie's been waiting for to make a big impression. And she doesn't intend it to be winning the mince pie eating competition.With the help of fellow dieter Sam, a sleigh load of will power and a sprinkling of Christmas magic, Ellie knows finding her Prince Charming is just a mistletoe kiss away.But is her prince really so charming? Or is Christmas romance closer than she thinks?

Jenny Sparrow Knows the Future


Melissa Pimentel - 2017
    . . 'Perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella . . . the feel-good book of the summer' Cathy Kelly, Number One bestselling authorJenny Sparrow can tell you her future:1. Meet soulmate at 25 2. Move in with him3. Marry him this year . . . According to the plan Jenny made at thirteen, it's time for her to get married. But when her boyfriend proposes a break instead of a wedding, a girls' weekend in Vegas is the only solution . . . until she wakes up in a stranger's bed, and discovers that this is the year she gets married - to the wrong man.Jenny wants a quick divorce and her old boyfriend back.But what if her accidental husband has other ideas?

Vince and Joy


Lisa Jewell - 2005
    Now nearly twenty years later they've both begun to ask themselves if that long-ago romance was the enduring love that they've been searching for.

Heart Like Mine


Amy Hatvany - 2013
    But when she meets Victor Hansen, a handsome, charismatic divorced restaurateur who is father to Max and Ava, Grace decides that, for the right man, she could learn to be an excellent part-time stepmom. After all, the kids live with their mother, Kelli. How hard could it be?At thirteen, Ava Hansen is mature beyond her years. Since her parents’ divorce, she has been the one taking care of her emotionally unstable mother and her little brother—she pays the bills, does the laundry, and never complains because she loves her mama more than anyone. And while her father’s new girlfriend is nice enough, Ava still holds out hope that her parents will get back together and that they’ll be a family again.But only days after Victor and Grace get engaged, Kelli dies suddenly under mysterious circumstances—and soon, Grace and Ava discover there was much more to Kelli’s life than either ever knew.Narrated by Grace and Ava in the present with flashbacks into Kelli’s troubled past, Heart Like Mine is a poignant and hopeful portrait about womanhood, love, and the challenges of family life.

A Little Sugar, A Lot of Love


Linn B. Halton - 2014
    But the reality of running a business hits Katie hard and whilst her partner, Steve, tries to help she can t help but feel that the situation is driving them further apart. Could Katie be set to lose her relationship and her dream job? Then, one winter s day, a man walks into her shop and, in the space of that moment, the course of Katie s life is changed. But nobody finds happiness in the blink of an eye. Sometimes it takes two Christmases, three birthdays and a whole lot of cake to get there REVIEWS What a gorgeous, feel-good read this was. A Little Sugar, A Lot of Love will hit just the spot when you need to while away the winter hours with a handsome hero, lots of cakes and a slow-burning, heartfelt romance. Sorcha O' Dowd, Book Blogger at Old Victorian Quill and Waterstone's BooksellerThis was a sweet romance, in more senses than one! Katie runs a cake shop and meets Adam when he calls in for a cake for his Grandma. The book then follows their lives as they occasionally meet and then part once more. - Ann Cooper, Annie's Book CornerHaving read a few of Linn B Halton's books in the last year, I feel very confident in saying that A Little Sugar, A Lot of Love is her best yet. It is such a sweet, touching and loving romantic story, told from various perspectives. - Rachel Gilbey, Rachel's Random Reads"

Wedding Bells in Merriment Bay


Emily Harvale - 2020
    Well, it is a leap year so it’s fine for women to do the asking, and besides, it took him eighteen years to tell her how he felt. She’s not going to wait for him to pop the question. All she needs to do is find the perfect time and place.Kyra’s fallen for Francis Raine, who seems happy to flirt and exchange banter but hasn’t actually asked her out. Does he reciprocate her feelings, or is he this way with every girl he meets? There’s only one way to find out. She’ll ask him on a date … as soon as he returns to Merriment Bay.Mary’s leaving Devon Villa after a lifetime spent in the house. She’s never lived alone so it’s both an exciting and a terrifying prospect. But change is good, isn’t it? Perhaps it’s time she tried a few other new things too.The Devon women want to move on to the next chapters in their lives. And as Viola Devon used to say before she died, “The only one who can write your own life story as you want it, is you.” Although Viola’s didn’t work out too well. Will Cat, Kyra, and Mary have better luck with theirs?This is book three in the Merriment Bay series. It can be read as a standalone but you would enjoy it more if you read the other two books in this series first. The Merriment Bay series is interlinked with the Wyntersleap series and several characters appear in both series.

Forbidden Pleasures


Jo Rees - 2010
    From Las Vegas to Dubai, from Shanghai to London, the fatal pull of the gambling world stretches...Savannah, pleasure-loving It Girl, wants to prove herself to her powerful, ruthless father Michael Hudson - until a terrible tragedy forces her to re-think her lifeLois, an ex-cop from the wrong side of the tracks, , is now running the gambling business of Michael's greatest rival, Roberto Enzo - and torn between the glamour and wealth of the casinos and the needs of her vulnerable young daughter.Both women have to confront their pasts, discover new loves, and find out the really important things in life before the greed and corruption of their worlds consume them.

Making Lemonade


Kate Langdon - 2007
    Before she can come to terms with being unemployed (yet again), she finds herself up the duff, father unknown. Is it her charming, arrogant and married ex-boss? Or is it the man-child she met one drunken night at the Irish pub. If only she could remember his name… Sally is married to Vincent, a self-absorbed televangelist, obsessed with his TV show and beauty treatments. She spends her days working, ferrying her three children around and listening to her husband preach. How could her hopes and dreams have been so unimportant she waved them goodbye without a second thought? Kat has the perfect life all mapped out: the perfect job, the perfect husband, the perfectly renovated home and the soon-to-come perfect children. But when her suspicions that her husband is having an affair are proved to be correct, she suddenly finds herself single with a handbag full of broken dreams. Can they find their way back to the dreams of their youth – or is it time to accept life’s lemons and start making lemonade?

The Holiday Cruise


Victoria Cooke - 2017
    Luckily, her big sister is there to pick up the pieces, but Hannah is determined to find some independence. Impulsively, Hannah applies for a spa job...on a cruise ship! Christmas in the Caribbean, springtime in the Mediterranean, what's not to like? But, despite being in her thirties, Hannah has never done anything in her own before, and she's terrified. As the ship sets sail, Hannah has never been further from home...or closer to discovering who she is and who she wants to be.

Hot Pursuit


Gemma Fox - 2004
    Right all her life but even she didn't expect him to be delivered to her door, giftwrapped in a skimpy towel, one sunny summer morning. Sexy Nick Lucas seems almost too good to be true—and maybe he is. Arriving out of nowhere, he seems to have no past, no family, no history: things just don't add up. But then again he's not the first man Maggie's been out with to have lead a double life. As Nick's past starts to catch up with him, Maggie becomes embroiled in an exciting cat-and-mouse chase across the country. Temperatures rise and passion sizzles but although Maggie has the hots for Nick, can she take the heat?

The Man You Meet in Heaven


Debbie Viggiano - 2018
     When Hattie Green pops to the shop one afternoon, she never expects her life to flash before her eyes between the tins of baked beans and a special offer on sliced white. One minute she’s loading her trolley and thinking about what to give her son for dinner, and the next she’s speaking to a gorgeous man in a glowing white suit about what her life could have been… If you had the chance to go back and relive it all, what would you do differently? Go on that date, take that promotion… eat that second biscuit? Hattie is about to discover where she went wrong, but will her mystery second chance reveal some STONKING secrets in her past that probably should have stayed hidden? A gorgeous romantic comedy with a few twists that will make you say OMG! Perfect for fans of Tracy Bloom, Marian Keyes and Dawn French.

Skeletons


Jane Fallon - 2014
    And when she married Jason and became part of the Masterson clan that's exactly what she got. For years everything was perfect. But then Jen sees something that she was never meant to see; unearths a secret she was never supposed to discover. If she tells, then her idyllic life might be over. But can she really keep it to herself?