Who Stole My Spandex?: Life in the Hot Flash Lane


Marcia Kester Doyle - 2016
    Who Stole My Spandex? is a witty selection of stories from Doyle’s madcap world of menopausal pitfalls, wardrobe malfunctions, and a family full of pranksters. This clever compilation includes laugh-out-loud pieces like "Queen of Klutz,” "One Size Fits None," and "Hands off my Egg Roll!" From couples' colonoscopies to nightmare holidays to disappearing spandex, no topic—no matter how crazy or unimaginable—is too taboo. With a heavy dose of self-deprecating humor, and a dash of sentiment, this marvelous collection of anecdotes will resonate with anyone who’s ever felt the call of nature at exactly the wrong time. Welcome to the nuthouse that Marcia Kester Doyle calls home.

When Archie Met Rosie: An Unexpected Love Story


Lynda Renham - 2018
    The first is to move off the Tradmore Estate, and the second is to see Paris. Archie wants for nothing. He has his five-bedroom house but no one to share it with now that his beloved wife, Cath, has died.  And then … Holly has a disastrous night out and, against all the odds, Archie meets Rosie. A funny, sad and poignant tale of how love can be found in the strangest of places.

You Had Me At Hello


Mhairi McFarlane - 2012
    Ben and Rachel. It was them against the world. Until it all fell apart.It’s been a decade since they last spoke, but when Rachel bumps into Ben one rainy day, the years melt away.From the moment they met they’d been a gang of two; partners in crime and the best of friends. But life has moved on. Ben is married. Rachel is definitely not. In fact, the men in her life make her want to take holy orders…Yet in that split second, Rachel feels the old friendship return. And along with it, the broken heart she’s never been able to mend.If you love David Nicholls and Lisa Jewell then this is the book for you. Hilarious, heartbreaking and everything in between, you’ll be hooked from their first ‘hello’.

The Madolescents


Chrissie Glazebrook - 2001
    Holed up with her mum in a Newcastle suburb and living on a steady diet of Bailey’s and chips, Rowena fantasizes about her absent dad and plans her own funeral music. But when she embarks on an energetic campaign to eliminate her mother’s new boyfriend, Bernard “Filthy” Luker, Rowena starts to lose her slippery grip on reality and is packed off to a teenage therapy group. Meet the Madolescents.

Fat Chance


Nick Spalding - 2014
    Greg's rugby-playing days are well and truly behind him, thanks to countless pints of beer and chicken curry.When Elise, a radio DJ and Zoe's best friend, tells them about a new competition, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn their lives around. Fat Chance will pit six hefty couples against one another to see who can collectively lose the most weight and walk away with a £50,000 prize.So begins six months of abject misery, tears, and frustration--that just might turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to them--in another laugh-out-loud look at the way we live now from bestselling author Nick Spalding.

Murder in Hampstead: a classic whodunnit in a contemporary setting


Sabina Manea - 2021
    

Forging On


Catherine Robinson - 2017
    He's in his element when he's outside in the country air, not stuck in a classroom wasting his youth and the beauty of Yorkshire. When he starts as an apprentice farrier, his first few days are a baptism of fire. His fellow apprentice is a wind-up merchant and his gruff boss, Stanley, ribs him mercilessly about his tea drinking habit. But in this chaotic environment, the three of them form a brotherhood, and soon, Will realises that the coming year is going to teach him a lot more than how to shoe a horse properly...

Walden of Bermondsey


Peter Murphy - 2017
    But he soon finds himself struggling to keep the peace between three feisty fellow judges who have very different views about how to do their job, and about how Charlie should do his.And as if that's not enough, there's the endless battle against the 'Grey Smoothies', the humourless grey-suited civil servants who seem determined to drown Charlie in paperwork and strip the court of its last vestiges of civilisation.No hope of a quiet life then for Charlie, and there are times when his real job - trying the challenging criminal cases that come before him - actually seems like light relief.'No one writes with more wit, warmth and insight about the law and its practitioners than Peter Murphy. He has no equal since the great John 'Rumpole' Mortimer' - David Ambrose'Though his exasperation is sometimes palpable, what triumphs over everything is his sense of humour. And it is the humour that makes Walden of Bermondsey such a delightful read. Think of him as what Rumpole would be like if he ever became a judge, and you get some idea of his self-deprecating wit and indomitable stoicism. Add a dash of Henry Cecil for his situation and AP Herbert for the fun he has with the law, and you get a sense of his literary precedents' - Paul Magrath

In the Wee Small Hours


Gil McNeil - 2011
    Her sister Lizzie's pregnant and wants Annie to be her birth-partner - she's planning an active labour, in water, with lots of candles and music. Her partner Matt isn't too sure, although he's bought some new swimming trunks just in case. Annie's friend Leila has got a new man, Tor, and she's getting heavily into yoga, while Kate from the village has somehow ended up having an affair with her own ex-husband. And as for the men in Annie's own life, it just gets worse. Her seven-year-old son Charlie is now officially Pagan, and desperate for his own pet pheasant. Boss Barney is building a bit of a reputation for TV commercials involving stunts, so if she's not lurching around the North Sea in a trawler, she's stuck up a crane. Then there's Uncle Monty, a retired mole-catcher who collects bric-a-brac, to keep an eye on. Eighty-three and a few sandwiches short of a picnic, Monty has threatened the Meals on Wheels lady with a shotgun and is refusing to leave the farm where he's lived all his life. just when Annie was beginning to think she might be able to cope without him.For everyone who fell in love with Annie Baker and her Only Boy for Me, here's what happened next. And for anyone who's ever wondered how to combine motherhood, the country life and a career in town, and why pheasants make that weird clicking noise, this is essential reading.

Checking Inn


Emily Harper - 2013
    Make sure the caterers don't serve devil's food cake to the Christian Women's Alliance- check. Tell my mother that having a séance to get rid of any unwanted spirits in the kitchen during dinnertime is not okay- check. Send a friendly reminder to all staff that the pens are colour coded for everyone's enjoyment, and therefore it is not a good idea to put them all in one jar in order to spice things up as was anonymously suggested- check. But, when an acclaimed hotel critic dies at the Inn, just before she's about to publish a scathing review that would ruin the business, Kate's life and checklists are thrown into disarray. And it doesn't help matters that the detective assigned to the case is messy, unorganized, and too charming for his own good. Now Kate has to prove her innocence and save her Inn, or else the only thing that she'll be organizing is the prison's next bake sale.

Sea Holly and Mistletoe Kisses (A Little Hotel in Cornwall Book 3)


Laura Briggs - 2019
     Meanwhile, Maisie experiences the village Christmas season vicariously through Sidney, and continues writing her Poe-inspired story with only Sidney aware of her secret novel. She soon learns, however, that criticism and praise go hand in hand when he takes issue with her latest chapters, which puts pressure on their friendship, too. But is that what's really the issue between them? Because handsome Gavin has more than ice sculpting in mind when it comes to Maisie's time, which comes as a surprise to no one who's seen them together. As Maisie faces this sudden romantic dilemma, she realizes what she wants most in her life ... and faces a question of what her heart wants most, too.

Merry Bloody Christmas


Ellie Scott - 2018
    A chocoholic grizzly bear, a talking Christmas tree, mince pie overdoses and a very bloody murder. Will poor old Saint Nick make it out alive? Sad, strange, funny and gruesome, this overlapping, multi-genre collection of tales has a little something for every reader. Curl up with a mulled wine and some fictional festive misery, and discover what Father Christmas really likes to drink when he wriggles down your chimney. Spoiler: it isn’t milk.

It's Raining Men


Milly Johnson - 2013
    They have been dreaming of a little cottage away from it all, long walks in the country and just a bit of time away from it all. But when they arrive in Ren Dullem, a small Yorkshire seaside town, it seems it is not the place they thought it was...May has never quite found her niche in life, or her Mr Right. Then in Dullem she falls hook line and sinker at first glance for one of the inhabitants - but he's already taken.Lara is living with James and his awful step-children who taunt her with tales of his younger, prettier ex whom they adored. The woman who Lara walks in to find James in bed with despite all his protestations that he wouldn't touch her again with a barge pole. Reeling from the hurt, she needs the sea air of Dullem to heal her. What she doesn't need is to be constantly in battle with the owner of the holiday cottage - a man who is every bit as bitter and resentful and untrusting of the other sex as she is. Clare's fiance Hugh wants her to go and live abroad with him for two years, but she's just been offered the promotion of a life-time. She needs some headspace to think about what she needs to do, but then she meets a very bad boy who is everything Hugh isn't - impulsive, wild and dangerous. Will this holiday be the break they all need? Or will it bring them all to breaking point...?

Adventures in Modern Marriage


William Nicholson - 2017
    It is an acute and compassionate look at male mid-life crises, female sexual desire, death and the fear of it, children and the trouble with them - all the things we battle with every day.

Lost and Found


Chloë Rayban - 2015
     She is sent over from England to sell the house as quickly as possible. But when she gets there something about the place enchants Julia. For although La Mulatière is decrepit, enormous and unmanageable, it is a house with a hundred stories, and all of them are begging Julia to uncover them. Her father’s legacy turns out to be a blessing in disguise. Julia finds herself falling in love with the house, the villagers – and perhaps even her brooding, surly neighbour, Jacques. Even as she is drawn to Jacques she is warned away from him by those who think they know him better. And unresolved issues with her ex, Oliver, might wreak havoc on her idyllic hideaway… La Mulatière begins to yield its secrets one by one, and Julia pieces together the past even as she tries to fathom her own future. Tales of the house in the Revolution, of its aristocracy flung from riches to abject poverty, and of a mysterious and scandalous noblewoman, all come to light. But the echoes from the past will not be silent in the present, and Julia slowly begins to realise that her prying might have serious consequences for her own future… Is La Mulatière the cure for Julia’s heartbreak...or will the past ruin what might be her last chance of happiness? ‘Lost and Found’ is a beautiful, evocative romance rich with the history of France. Praise for Chloe Rayban: ‘A perfect blend of romance and self-discovery’ - Holy Kinsella, bestselling author of 'Uptown Girl' Chloe Rayban is the bestselling author of 13 books for teenagers, including Wild Child (Random House). She has been shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize twice and the Carnegie Medal. Her books have been translated into many different languages and are sold all over the world. She lives in London and France. 'Lost and Found' is her first adult novel. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.