Althea Farraday, a thirty-eight-year-old divorced mother of three, has a teenage son who’s a Buddhist, a hypercritical sister who knows how to push all her buttons, a job on the endangered species list, and a love life to match. Just as she’s settling in to a comfortable level of chaos, a near-perfect man enters her life. Equipped to steal her heart and help turn her passion for designing gardens into a new career, Patrick Donahugh may be too good to be true. Amid wild roses, California poppies, scarlet flax, sweet rocket, love-in-a-mist, and of course, plenty of dirt, Wild Designs is a refreshingly honest and funny read that celebrates the almost-ready-to-bloom aspect of all of our lives.
“Vanessa Benjamin is a wonderful narrator; her Althea is a struggling working mom with a grand sense of humor. Benjamin’s interpretation of Patrick Donahugh cleverly portrays a witty gentleman desperately trying to win Althea’s heart. Overall, Benjamin presents a full cast of British characters with forethought and color.”—AudioFile
Brought to you by Penguin.
It must be love. A wonderfully romantic novel from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Recipe for Love, A French Affair and The Perfect Match.
Althea is the mother of three strong-minded children - one of whom is a Buddhist - and owner of a finicky dog named Bozo.
Saddled with too large a house (albeit in a beautiful Cotswold village), worrisome mortgage payments, a bossy younger sister and irksome ex-husband, Althea still manages to muddle through life comfortably enough. Until she loses her job.
Seeking solace in her borrowed greenhouse, Althea decides to develop her passion for gardening. And when she wins the opportunity to design a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show with the unexpected help of gorgeous architect Patrick Donahugh, it looks as though Althea may have unearthed a new man as well as a new career...
Brought to you by Penguin.
Love can grow on you, or can it? A wonderfully romantic novel from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Recipe for Love, A French Affair and The Perfect Match.
When Perdita Dylan delivers her baby vegetables to a local hotel and finds that her unpredictable ex-husband, Lucas, has taken over the kitchen, she is horrified - particularly when she discovers he's being groomed as the latest celebrity chef and needs her picturesque, if primitive cottage, and her, in supporting roles.
Her life is further complicated when Kitty, her 87-year-old friend, has a stroke. Perdita needs someone to lean on - and Lucas seems so keen to help that she starts to wonder if he's really such a villain. Can she cope with all this alone? Or should she face up to the fact that 'You can't cuddle lettuces'?
Brought to you by Penguin.
When May teams up with Sally and Harriet it is the best day's work she's ever done. Each of them needs money, badly. Which is why they are reduced to working for Quality Cleaners under the watchful eye of 'Slimeball' Slater. When they discover it is them being taken to the cleaners, they set up as an independent team. And that is when things really begin to take off. With more lucrative jobs coming in, they soon find that they are able to take the first steps towards freedom and independence. For May that means paying the mooring fees for her adored houseboat. Harriet can take art classes and reveal her gift for painting, and Sally can save up for a place of her own. But while they are making a success of their working lives, they risk overlooking the romantic possibilities they have created-
The wonderful new novel from the RNA award winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of A French Affair.
Three years ago Bella Castle left her home town nursing a broken heart over Dominic Thane, the man she fell in love with but couldn't have ...
Now she's made a new life for herself in the country, working as an estate agent.
Bella loves her job and she loves her boyfriend Nevil. But recently he's been preoccupied, and she's starting to question if his future hopes and dreams are a perfect match for hers.
And when Dominic turns up unexpectedly in search of his dream house, she begins to wonder if home is really where the heart is. But she's over him, isn't she?
A brand-new book by the Number One Bestselling author Katie Fforde containing NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED Christmas short stories. Perfect for anyone who loves romance, humour and happy-ever-after endings.
It's Christmas morning. The tree is decorated, the presents are wrapped and the turkey's in the oven.
Outside the first flakes of snow are beginning to fall.
AND HERE IT IS!
A personal present from Katie Fforde: six NEW perfectly themed seasonal short stories, guaranteed to make this your happiest Christmas ever!
'A lovely, warm read to sink your teeth into' Heat
'Delicious - gorgeous humour and the lightest of touches' Sunday Times
'A perfect match for an afternoon curled up on the sofa!' Sun
Sian Bishop has only ever experienced one moment of recklessness - a moment that resulted in her beloved son Rory. It's not that she doesn't love the outcome of that wild night, but since then she has always taken the safer route. So when dependable, devoted Richard suggests a move to the beautiful English countryside, she leaves the hustle and bustle of the city behind, and she throws herself into the picture-postcard cottage garden, her furniture restoration business, and a new life in the country.
Her good intentions are torpedoed on a glorious summer's evening with the arrival of Gus Berresford. One-time explorer and full-time heartbreaker, Gus is ridiculously exciting, wonderfully glamorous and a completely inappropriate love interest for a single mum. But Gus and Sian have met before...
Sian has no use for a fling, she simply mustn't fall in love with the most unlikely suitor ever to cross her path - even if he has now crossed her path twice. But who knows what can happen in a summer of love...
'You're not doing very much at the moment, darling. I don't suppose you'd care to house-sit for a while?'
Thus begins the irresistible story of two fixer-uppers'an old house and a young woman'and their efforts to recapture their true luster.
When Hetty Longden, freshly dumped and brokenhearted, agrees to look after her great-uncle's dilapidated mansion in the English countryside, she's at something of a lifetime low. With no job, no lover, no prospects, and no particular talent for resuscitating crumbling estates, she hopes for nothing more than some good old-fashioned escape. What she finds includes a cast of quirky and ever-present neighbors, a couple of SNAGs (Sensitive New Age Guys); some very humorless bank officials; a cat and two disarming little canines; one gracious, dilapidated, romantic old house; and, just maybe, enough elbow grease to polish everything up again.
A Sunday Times (London) bestseller that's as inviting as an elegant old house full of unexplored rooms, after a good scrubbing-down, of course, Stately Pursuits is the funniest, smartest, and warmest read of the season.
'Charming'Enormously enjoyable'Like listening to Cole Porter or watching The Philadelphia Story.''Newsday
Brought to you by Penguin.
Just the thing for a broken heart. A wonderfully romantic novel from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Recipe for Love, A French Affair and The Perfect Match.
'I don't suppose you'd care to house-sit for a while...'
Hetty Longden's mother thinks that looking after Great Uncle Samuel's crumbling stately home will be just the thing for Hetty's broken heart. Hetty doesn't mind; at least she can be miserable in private. But 'private' is a relative term in a village which revolves around the big house. Particularly when you are expected to thwart Great Uncle Samuel's awful heir, and his nefarious plans for his inheritance.
Pitchforked into the community's fight to save the manor, Hetty has no time to wallow. And once she has shared her troubles with one neighbour (Caroline: a very understanding shoulder, despite her glamorous appearance and impossibly long legs), and cast an appreciative eye over another (Peter: equally long-legged, but offering rather more practical help), she wonders if her heart is irretrievably broken after all...
Sian ist mit ihrem kleinen Sohn aufs Land gezogen. Während sie mit Hingabe ihren Garten bepflanzt, lernt sie die fröhliche Fiona kennen, die ihr bald eine mütterliche Freundin wird. Beide sehnen sich nach ein bisschen Erfrischung in Sachen
Liebesleben, daher nutzt Fiona das Partnerbörsenangebot im Internet, und Sian denkt über die Wiederbelebung ihrer Affäre mit einem treuen Verehrer nach. Doch das Schicksal hat andere Pläne und präsentiert ihnen das Glück eines Tages gleich
im Doppelpack -
