Five years after leaving university, Lizzie Jordan considers herself one of life's failures, unlike her highflying friends. She still corresponds with Brian, a former student friend, and is overjoyed when he announces a visit.
In the quaint seaside town of Newbay, a beginner's cookery course is starting. And three very different students have signed up. Liz's husband has left her for a twenty-something clean-eating blogger, and she's determined to show the world - and her daughter - she's just as capable in the kitchen. John, newly widowed after fifty years of marriage, can't live on sympathy lasagnes forever. To thirty-year-old workaholic Bella, the course is a welcome escape from her high-pressure job. Their only common ground: between them, they can barely boil an egg! Enter talented chef Alex, who is determined to introduce his pupils to the comforts of cuisine. As Liz, John and Bella encounter various disasters in the kitchen, the unlikely trio soon form a fast friendship. Their culinary skills might be catastrophic - but could the cookery club have given them a recipe for happiness?
Heiress and celebrity Birdie Sederburg has been used to getting everything she wants. That is, until hot young actor Dean Stevenson (quite literally) crashes into her life. Birdie's convinced she's found The One. But Dean is only in it for his career, and is resisting her charm offensive. Still, Birdie is not prepared to admit defeat. As her obsession with Dean grows, she realises she may have to do something drastic to make him fall in love with her. But is getting herself kidnapped in order to win his heart as insane as it sounds? How far would you go for love?
Recovering in hospital from an appendix operation, Ali Harris whiles away her time by entering magazine competitions. A few weeks later, she's delighted to discover that she's won first prize in Complete Woman magazine's Most Romantic Couple of the Year competition. There's just one problem. Ali has been dumped by her fiance, and there's no way she can claim her prize - a romantic holiday for two in Antigua - on her own. Help is at hand in the unlikely form of Jeremy 'Boily' Baxter, the spotty boy next door. But Ali's troubles have only just begun.
The perils and pitfalls of flatsharing are brought vividly to life in this frank and funny first novel by an exceptionally talented new writer who possesses a wickedly accurate eye for detail and a highly infectious sense of humour.
When Lindsey Parker's widowed father announces that he is to remarry, Lindsey does what any good daughter would do: wishes him congratulations then sets about trying to kill his fiancée, Karen. Fortunately, the murder attempt fails but Lindsey still succeeds in driving Karen off. It doesn't take long, however, before Lindsey realizes that her father's heart really is broken and the only way to mend it is by getting Karen back. But Karen already has a new man - mysterious entrepreneur. Lindsey enlists the help of an old schoolmate, now private detective, in an attempt to break this new couple up, but when on her friend's advice, Lindsay turns honey-trapper and sets out to seduce her ex-future-step-mother's new man, she finds herself falling in love...