Loading their estate cars with dogs, cats, casefuls of wine, difficult adolescents and rebellious toddlers, they close up their desirable semis in smartish London suburbs - having turned off the Aga and turned on the burglar alarm - and look forward to a carefree, restful, somehow more fulfilling summer.Clare is, this year, more than usually ready for her holiday. Her teenage daughter, Miranda, has been behaving strangely; her husband, Jack, is harbouring unsettling thoughts of a change in lifestyle; her small children are being particularly tiresome; and she herself is contemplating a bit of extra-marital adventure, possibly with Eliot, the successful - although undeniably heavy-drinking and overweight - author in the adjoining holiday property. Meanwhile Andrew, the only son of elderly parents, is determined that this will be the summer when he will seduce Jessica, Eliot's nubile daughter. But Jessica spends her time in girl-talk with Miranda, while Milo, her handsome brother with whom Andrew longs to be friends, seems more interested in going sailing with the young blond son of the club commodore.Unexpected disasters occur, revelations are made and, as the summer ends, real life will never be quite the same again.

    Molly's unexpected pregnancy somehow turns her boyfriend into the poncy-vegan-nut-milk-enforcer, but she breezes it, as she breezes everything. (Including still being able to eat avocados much to Emily's annoyance.)Liz quickly realises if she's to move her life on, she needs to get rid of the married man she's in love with... especially now she's realised he's been hiding more than his wedding ring...

    This book contains articles available free on Wikipedia and other free sources.

    Meet Lizzie and Kim as they grow from small-town adolescents to women on the hedonistic stage of London in the early eighties. There they join Kim's older sister, Vonnie, an untameable force of nature who is everything they'd like to be. Or is she? Told with an infectious energy, My Vintage Summer is for those who remember dressing up for their first night out, the first song they danced to with their best friend, their first love - and their first life-altering mistake. It's a story of what happens when life doesn't turn out as you had expected.

    But dreaming is as close as she has ever come to the happiness she longs for. Devastated by childlessness and divorce, she is isolated and deeply depressed. Then a package arrives on that fateful birthday. Inside is a picture straight out of her dream, a package of... tea? And a letter signed with her name: Emma Rae Wright. Add to that a phone call from a lawyer in California, and Emma is catapulted into a journey across country and across decades. How does a confirmed recluse juggle attractive men, priceless Russian jewels, ageless relatives, angry fathers, and tea that has rather... curious properties? From her grungy Michigan apartment to sun-dappled redwood forests, from a dead-end job to a partnership in an exotic and unusual company, Emma's life gets tangled beyond recognition. Desperate to make sense of ever more baffling circumstances, Emma is forced to face her own inner demons as well as the extraordinary legacy left behind by a woman who disappeared without a trace over ninety years ago.

    From forgotten loves to second chances, new happiness and old friends, this is an uplifting and moving collection of short stories about how love changes, and how it changes us - from Sunday Times bestseller Veronica Henry. Your favourite authors love Veronica's gorgeous storytelling: 'Fills your heart with joy and leaves you with a big fat smile on your face' Milly Johnson on Christmas at the Beach Hut 'Truly blissful escapism' Lucy Diamond on A Family Recipe 'A delight from start to finish' Jill Mansell on The Forever House - - - - - ** This is a collection of short stories **

    An artificial intelligence, The Genesis, began creating a world without flaws—killing off humanity’s leaders and growing children in labs. A perfect world.  A perfect society.  A perfect human race… But one man, Caesar Wells, sees beyond the utopian canvas The Genesis painted.  Refusing to bow to The Genesis, he tries to prove the world must be restored to its former state.  But The Genesis will not be stopped or thwarted. Now it's up to Caesar to rescue humanity from itself. Grab your battle gear and suit up for the fight of your life as Caesar attacks the greatest threat humanity has ever known.  Willing to die if needed, watch as one man sets out to teach everyone that a perfect world cannot exist. Unless The Genesis decides it already does...

    Kristen Buckley takes readers into the little-watched-but soon-to-be prime time-life of TV junkie Parker Grey...with no commercial interruptions. When she isn't waiting tables, Parker Grey doesn't have much to do except watch reruns of her favorite medical drama and fantasize about its star. In fact, sometimes she feels like her life is one big TV show-one she'd channel-surf right past. But now Parker's roommate, Lil, has disappeared. Knowing she's a lot better at watching drama than creating it, Parker turns to TV for help. Inspired by the sexy star of "La Femme Nikita," she takes to the streets of Manhattan. To find Lil. And to start writing a whole new script for her life.

    But that’s before she sees the perfect child. There he sits in his stroller, angelic and beautiful, magnetic and serene– and he makes Jane question everything she has and everything she thought she wanted. Suddenly all she can see are babies and pregnant woman everywhere. Were there always so many of them? And while there was once a man in her life–her one true love, Sam, gone from this world too soon–there is no man now. Jane must make a choice: possibly become a bitter and childless old lady, letting her biological clock tick on ’till menopause, or tend the ache in her heart now, by becoming a single mother. As Jane struggles to make the most important decision of her life, friends and family offer no shortage of opinions. There’s Ray, her “hubstitute” and gay best friend who would be jealous of any kid who got Jane as a mom; Sheila, her sister, who went from zero to sixty when she eloped with Raoul–who had two young twin sons– and has mixed feelings about being a new mommy; her strict, Catholic father who can’ t imagine what level of hell Jane would banish herself to if she becomes a single mother; and the women of Families with Children from China who are preparing to adopt orphan daughters–without a man in sight. Just as she thinks she’s made up her mind, Jane discovers one small wrench in her plans: handsome, charming, funny Peter, who just happens to be (unhappily) married. . . . And Baby Makes Two is a heartbreakingly honest, wonderfully addictive, and funny novel about love and loss, family and friendship. Judy Sheehan, co-creator of the smash hit Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, has perfectly captured the delights and dilemmas of the scariest job in the world: motherhood.From the Hardcover edition.

    V has to live in a sham marriage as she seeks information on her husband, his financial affairs and proof of his sexual affairs.

    Her first return to novel writing has resulted in an unrestrained picture of grief that feels at times, uncomfortably intimate ... this is not a book for the fragile (Melissa Katsoulis, Times Sat. 25 April 2009).

    It falls to Rose to bring up her young sister and run the household, with little thanks from either of her parents. But just as Rose has almost given up hope, she realises she has a secret admirer of her own.

    Her escape is achieved just before the disastrous advent of Hitler, and there is further tragedy to come.Follow her through childhood and adolescence, then on into her twenties when, finally made whole, she wins her own battle for freedom, for love and for her own place in the world.

    This special 2-for-1 collection features two of these classic titles: Riders and Rivals.RidersRiders takes the lid off international showjumping, a sport where the brave horses are almost human, but the humans behave like animals. The brooding hero, gypsy Jake Lovell, under whose magic hands the most difficult horse or woman becomes biddable, is driven to the top by his loathing of the beautiful bounder and darling of the show ring, Rupert Campbell-Black. Having filched each other's horses, and fought and fornicated their way around the capitals of Europe, the feud between the two men finally erupts with devastating consequences during the Los Angeles Olympics.RivalsInto the cut-throat world of Corinium television comes Declan O'Hara, a mega-star of great glamour and integrity. Living rather too closely across the valley is Rupert Campbell-Black, divorced and as dissolute as ever, and now the Tory Minister for Sport. Declan needs only a few days at Corinium to realise that the Managing Director, Lord Baddingham, is a crook who has recruited him merely to help retain the franchise for Corinium. Baddingham has also enticed Cameron Cook, a gorgeous but domineering woman executive, to produce Declan's programme. Declan and Cameron detest each other, provoking a storm of controversy into which Rupert plunges with his usual abandon. As a rival group emerges to pitch for the franchise, reputations ripen and decline, true love blossoms and burns, marriages are made and shattered, and sex raises its (delicious) head at almost every throw as, in bed and boardroom, the race is on to capture the Cotswold Crown.

    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?