Thirty something Magda, born in England to Polish parents has recently broken up with her rotten boyfriend Matt and needs a fresh start. Quitting her job, she sets off to Warsaw to teach English, While her excited Mama thinks she is off to find a nice Polish husband, Magda simply wants to explore her roots. improve her rusty Polish and see how her parents' homeland has changed. To her horror Magda discovers that Mama and bossy cousin Dagmara have sneakily put her on a dating site. Does Magda stay in Poland? And does she find a Polish husband? And what does she learn about her mama's tragic past? A moving romantic comedy, 'Are My Roots Showing?' is about identity, migration, family, the fleetingness of life and love. Magda learns how history affects the present, and that where there are roots, new shoots can grow. …It’s a charming book which can be read as a light-hearted tale but there is a lot of meaning beneath the surface. As an exploration of how it feels to belong to and reconcile two cultures, it's really successful. It offers humour, sadness and wisdom as well as entertaining read. Just beautiful!… …Although Are My Roots Showing? explores some serious themes, it’s all done with a very light touch and a lot of laugh-out-loud humour. The characterisations are exquisite… …This is a beautiful book, sometimes really funny and sometimes heart-breaking…What readers say about the romantic comedy 'Are My Roots Showing?' ...Fantastic. A Polish Bridget Jones. Funny, and yet the Polish history interjections are interesting too. Makes me want to visit Poland, but I need to take my own food!!! You'll understand once you've read it... …It’s a charming book which can be read as a light-hearted tale but there is a lot of meaning beneath the surface. As an exploration of how it feels to belong to and reconcile two cultures, it's really successful. It offers humour, sadness and wisdom as well as an entertaining read. Just beautiful!… …Although 'Are My Roots Showing?' explores some serious themes, it’s all done with a very light touch and a lot of laugh-out-loud humour. The characterisations are exquisite… …This is a beautiful book, sometimes really funny and sometimes heart-breaking…

    The dot.com boom is in full swing, and it seems as though every twenty-something has become an instant millionaire-except our narrator, who has just arrived from the Midwest without a job. Confronted with the chilling prospect of missing out on the greatest cash grab of the twentieth century, he enlists with a temp agency. That's when things start getting strange.Mistaken by the agency for an urbane homosexual instead of the ex-frat boy he really is, he is assigned to a fully-staffed mansion in the Pacific Heights neighborhood. His new boss? Definitely not the old matron he was expecting.Bailey Phelan is the gorgeous, thirty-year-old wife of an aging billionaire, and her penchant for Prada, recreational drugs, and foreign boyfriends quickly has the narrator running in circles trying to keep her exorbitant spending and romantic misadventures under wraps. But despite all the glitz, what she might need most is a friend.As the narrator gets sucked deeper into the mansion milieu-oversexed nannies, a lovelorn gay chef, the obsessive head housekeeper, the bilious billionaire himself-he's faced with the unavoidable question: will the six-figure salary and over-the-top lifestyle of the rich and infamous corrupt him -- or will he cut and run with his soul intact?

    Still smarting from the fact that her husband left her for a younger woman, she’s trying to cope single-handedly with a sick elderly cat, a sick elderly mother and a sick elderly car – to say nothing of two daughters who treat the house much like a comfortable hotel. And on top of everything else, she’s having trouble hanging on to her job.So why does everyone else seem to think turning fifty is the trouble? And why does everyone seem to think she’s losing her mind? She’s not really going crazy ... or is she?

    The ex who can't stop talking about the French girlfriend who dumped him. The cute young bartender who knows how to make a Manhattan straight up. And, of course, Mr. Right—who looks like Liam Neeson, writes poetry like e.e. cummings, plays the guitar like Jimmy Page. Until he turns out to be a complete and total jerk.Narrated in 781 chapters—The List is an irresistible look at love, dating, friendship, sex, cats, thongs, and shopping. And a story that's as pleasurable, as interesting, as gossipy, as truthful, as reassuring, as compelling, as sane, as necessary as a late-night phone call to your best friend ever. Pour a cup of tea, curl up on the couch, and read to your heart's content.

    She had to leave the comfortable home she had shared with Edward and their three children, now all grown-up, and move into a small flat in the middle of Bath. The dramatic change in her lifestyle threatened to overwhelm her. But gradually Naomi began to appreciate the changes, and even to enjoy them. For the first time in her life she could do what she liked, and make her own friends. If these included men friends - well, why not? Unfortunately her children could think of many reasons why not, and Naomi began a battle to establish her own independence, and to persuade her family that she had moved into the springtime of a whole new life. In this warm and inspiring new novel, Elvi Rhodes's wonderful storytelling skills are used to explore a dilemma faced by many women today.

    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.

    Desperate, she decides to take a chance and ask her favourite writer, a celebrated but reclusive English novelist, to help her find a second chance. When she receives the author's reply in an envelope with a Cornish postmark, Maisie decides not to take the writer's half-hearted 'no' for an answer. With nothing to lose, she takes off for the author's last known location, a beautiful hotel on Cornwall's western coast. But when the hotel mistakes her for the latest applicant for a maid's position, Maisie finds herself given an opportunity too good to lose ... and a chance for a summer adventure far bigger than she ever imagined. Surrounded by breathtaking Cornwall and working in an elegant hotel, Maisie's world becomes one of secret identities, quirky friends, and unintentional mishaps — and despite reminders of past relationship disasters, a certain handsome, charming local resident Sidney Daniels has her conflicted about her heart's desires, too. Will Maisie find the chance she's been waiting for — and a possible new romance — in her perfect Cornish summer?

    She’s bored. Bored with her safe monotonous job; bored with her cautious loneliness. Thanks to an unexpected financial windfall, Cynthia opts for early retirement at fifty, hoping to find a new passion. Soon, she thinks she’s found it – in the form of a failing boutique abandoned by its mysterious owner. And the shop is not the only thing the proprietor has deserted. There’s a very nice husband left behind as well. It’s perfect. Until Cynthia meets Shannon Miller. Shannon is fourteen, a tough and defiant casualty of the foster care system. And she’s pregnant. Irresistibly drawn to this foul-mouthed, sarcastic, but vulnerable teenager, Cynthia rediscovers long-buried memories.Suddenly the store seems unimportant. And hoping she can explain to the new man in her life – eventually, anyway – Cynthia takes the leap. She offers Shannon a deal. With strings attached.If they both get what they want, does it matter that their scheme is just slightly illegal?

    So, when he receives a series of delayed emails from his late wife Lindsay telling him to date, it seems like a good idea. With Lindsay's emails spurring him on, Andy weaves a path of disharmony and chaos amongst his close friends and family, but soon discovers he is not cut out for modern dating. Filled with laugh-out-loud situations and moments of soul-searching, this heart-warming, moving romantic comedy set in Edinburgh, is a bittersweet tale of second chances and self-discovery.

    Everyone dismisses her long-term dream to live in Italy as another ‘mad hippy whim.’ While she’s busy planning other people’s happy endings, grief, eviction and debt nip at her heels. Trying to stabilise her life as an entrepreneur in the middle of an economic crash is almost impossible.When her landlord suddenly doubles the rent, Rosie is left with no choice but to pack up her family, two dogs and possessions into a 20-year-old camper van and head off in search of her own happy ending in sunny Italy.She soon discovers integrating into life in a new country isn’t as easy as it looks on TV, especially when the language is a minefield of accidental sexual innuendo. And trying to buy an abandoned villa in Umbria from eight crazy cousins with a longstanding family battle bubbling under the surface doesn’t make it any easier. While Rosie is determined to create the perfect life for her family in Italy, despite a hurricane, a raucous family dispute and a little thing called a global pandemic to top it all off, she begins to realise that the Italian dream may be too big for her. Will she ever get to live her rosy life in Italy? Or has she bitten off more than she can chew?

    

    Completely unprepared and suffering an acute sense of loss, she and her father continue quietly, trying to live by the well-intentioned advice of friends, hoping that time really is a great healer and that they will, eventually, move on. Life changes very little until Sarah leaves for university and begins her first serious relationship. Along with her new boyfriend comes his mother, the indomitable Hazel Poole. Despite some misgivings, Sarah finds herself drawn into the matriarchal Poole family and discovers that gaining a mother figure in her life brings mixed blessings. A mother-in-law who just can't let her sons grow up, a midwife who treats her charges like girls in a private school dormitory. These are some of the people who Sarah must deal with as her own pregnancy turns to motherhood and she realises that she must find her own two feet. Looking Past is a tale of family, friendship, love, life and death – not necessarily in that order. This is the second novel from Katharine E. Smith, author of Writing the Town Read. The narrator’s voice is clear and strong, with vivid descriptions and intelligent observations. Readers will quickly empathise with Sarah, whose grief and confusion at the loss of her mother at key moments in her life is contrasted with a dry and sometimes subtle humour derived from situations and characters which help colour the book. The father-daughter relationship which develops between the bereaved husband and daughter feels very real, as both come to terms with their grief and learn how best to live together. Sarah's father is unassuming and appealing, as he struggles to find a way to deal with his broken heart and support his daughter throughout school, puberty and on into adulthood. Smith's readers have praised her honesty, realism, warmth and humour. Both Looking Past and Writing the Town Read - Katharine's first novel - are written from a strong female first person perspective. However, don't be fooled into thinking this is chick lit - or indeed exclusively women's fiction. Looking Past has received praise from a number of male readers, including an ex-US Marine. You don't get much more macho than that! Nevertheless, this is a story guaranteed to strike a chord with mothers, daughters - and daughters-in-law - everywhere. The dual settings of Yorkshire and Cornwall will interest people with strong links to those places but the characters and events hold universal appeal. This is a book for people who like people. Looking Past was selected for the People's Book Prize Winter 2015 Collection.

    As far as Kay is concerned, the best season begins when the last lodger packs up their sunscreen and novelty t-shirts and goes home. Shoulder season was when Kerby Lodge was just for the Kerbys—her family huddled around the massive stone fireplace playing games and listening to the Great Lakes wind wail like a tragic shipwreck. She loves Kerby Lodge, but she also loved the idea of leaving it after she graduated from college. Then tragedy struck, and instead of leaving the lodge, it was left to her. Leaving Kay to keep the family tradition alive, which she numbly does year after year. Now storms are looming over Lake Michigan. An epic snowstorm pounds the coastline, and a blizzard of bills and taxes threaten to bury the family lodge her parents worked so hard to build. But the storms she doesn’t see coming are the volatile unpredictable Mayne brothers. The first is a cloud of dark curls and surly attitude named Daniel Mayne, her reclusive final guest of the season. An abrupt alpha-male licking his wounded pride after a devastating career loss, Daniel just wants to be left alone. Kay is happy to oblige him until a freak accident and record-breaking blizzard leave them holed up together with no possibility of escape. Trapped behind walls of snow, Kay finds herself confiding long-distance with Luke, Daniel’s younger brother, a nomadic school teacher wandering rootless from job to job. Forced to face their broken dreams together, Kay and Daniel forge an uneasy alliance and set out on a journey of reclamation that will change both their lives. Kay finds herself entangled, not only with Daniel, but also Luke. One brother makes her laugh, and the other just makes her crazy. In this smart, warm, uplifting tale of renovation, redemption and romance, a rustic old lodge on Lake Michigan isn’t the only thing that gets a second chance.

    It's a far cry from the heady days when he led his band, The Shooting Tsars, to the top of the charts and sell-out tours and festivals around the world.An unwelcome phone call from his deceitful ex-manager, Chas Dupont, sets in motion a chain of events that seems unstoppable.Can Will get his fractured band back together and rediscover his mojo? Are Chas Dupont's motives purely altruistic? Who are the musical mafia? And are the legendary rumours about the lost "Bloom Tape" true?