Seeing Stars

by Christina Jones

  Not strictly true, but what the heck.

  ‘No, no – but what I mean is, with me being a bit of a hippie throwback, and a social worker to boot, I thought—’

  ‘Dangerous thing, thinking,’ Amber said softly. ‘Try asking sometimes.’

  ‘What? Well, yeah, OK – but you see, over the weeks, as I got to know you, I realised that the outside gloss wasn’t you. You were – are – feisty, intelligent, kind, funny – all my misconceptions were just that. And you didn’t need the slap and the fashion stuff – and well, like now – just jeans and a sweater and your hair all natural and you, individual, the inner you, shining out …’

  Not sure if this was a compliment or not, Amber shrugged. ‘I think I get your drift. But yes, you were wrong about sticking a label on me. I haven’t changed – although my life has, and I’ve learned since being here that there are more important things than celeb crap, and being an identi-kit woman, and false glamour. Fiddlesticks has brought out the best in me. People like Gwyneth and Ida with their caring about animals, and Zillah being so brave, and yes, you with Jem – you’ve all shown me that there’s much more to life than I’d ever thought. And it’s rubbed off – I guess there was always this me, underneath …’ She stopped and looked at him. ‘But – er – Lewis, what exactly are you trying to say?’

  He looked away from her for a moment. ‘I wondered – if we could sort of move the relationship on a bit. From being friends to – er – going out together? Properly. As a couple?’

  Oh, whoopee! Amber’s mental gymnastics had a blissful workout. Then, right in the middle of the back-flip, they stopped. She couldn’t cope with being another Sukie – one date – then passed over for the next pretty face.

  It would simply break her heart.

  ‘I don’t know. I mean yes, I’d love to go out with you – you know that, or at least you should. But as we’re being painfully honest, you have got a terrible reputation, haven’t you? Look, I’m not asking for lifetime commitment here, but you’ve made the love ’em and leave ’em thing an art form, haven’t you?’

  ‘Because of Jem.’ Lewis looked at her then. ‘My commitment to Jem is lifelong. His lifespan may not be as long as ours, but while he’s alive – and God, I hope it’s for a long time – he is my sole responsibility. I’ve never, ever met any woman who could cope with that. With sharing me with him.’

  ‘I love him.’

  ‘He loves you, too,’ Lewis swallowed. ‘Which is why I had to be sure that you wouldn’t leave him – us – me …’

  Amber took a deep breath. ‘Are you saying …? I mean

  Lewis nodded. ‘I can’t stand this any longer. Amber—’

  Suddenly the dark sky sizzled with silver.

  ‘What?’ Amber grabbed Lewis’s arm. ‘What on earth is that?’

  ‘Shooting stars ’ Lewis said softly. ‘Real astral magic. Nature’s firework display.’

  Amber gazed in total awe as the stars shimmied and sped across the dense velvet, vivid pinpricks of light leaving a dusting of diamonds cascading in their wake.

  ‘It’s beautiful … Amazing …’

  ‘So are you,’ Lewis said softly. ‘Oh God – I love you. I love you so much, but I come with so much baggage.’

  ‘As long as it’s Luis Vuitton, I’ll be happy,’ Amber giggled. ‘No, sorry, sad fashionista joke. Oh, God—’

  And then she was in his arms and her body melted with wantonness as he kissed her.

  And ages and ages later, bathed in the light of the harvest moon, they still clung together.

  She giggled, thanking her lucky stars for bringing her to Fiddlesticks and Lewis. In fact, thanking her lucky stars for absolutely everything.

  ‘Mmmm,’ she sighed blissfully, wriggling against him. ‘Whatever else Cassiopeia and the other celestial gods may have fixed for everyone else, she didn’t have a hand in this. I didn’t ask her for this.’

  ‘No.’ Lewis smiled, kissing her again. ‘But I did …’

  Hubble Bubble

  Christina Jones

  ‘Hubble bubble, toil and trouble,

  Casserole burn and intrigues double …’

  When Mitzi Blessing is made redundant, she is determined not to settle for endless dreary coffee mornings followed by bad, made-for-TV movies in the afternoons. Mitzi decides she is ready for a change, but doesn’t know where to start.

  Hunting for inspiration in the attic, she discovers her grandmother’s old cookery book. Full of old-fashioned recipes with enchanting names like Mischief Night Cake and Powers of Persuasion Pudding, Mitzi can’t resist giving them a try. After all, they seem harmless enough, but when a single serving of Wishes Come True Pie results in not one, but two men showing up at her door, Mitzi realizes life is about to get very interesting indeed. Granny’s dishes provide a nourishing meal, but they also seem to have some very surprising side effects …

  Praise for Christina Jones:

  ‘feisty tale of friendship and laughter, loyalty and love … engaging’ The Times

  ‘Bloody good read … Funny, romantic book … a lively romp through rural England’ New Woman

  ‘a working class Jilly Cooper’ The Mirror

  Northern Lights

  Nora Roberts

  Lunacy, Alaska is Nate Burke’s last chance. As a city cop, he had watched his partner die – and the guilt still haunts him. Maybe serving as Chief of Police in this tiny, remote town, where darkness falls by mid-afternoon and temperatures fall to below zero, will bring some kind of solace.

  Only an unexpected kiss from feisty pilot Meg Galloway under the brilliant Northern Lights of the Alaskan sky lifts his spirit. As their relationship tentatively blossoms, Nate begins to feel more at home.

  But when two climbers find a corpse on the mountain, he discovers that Lunacy isn’t quite the sleepy little backwater he imagined …

  Praise for Nora Roberts:

  ‘a perennial best-selling author.’ New York Times

  ‘Roberts shines again with a nuanced tale of the Alaskan wilderness and the appealing eccentrics who cluster there … a richly textured novel’ Publishers Weekly

  Wedding Season

  Darcy Cosper

  Seventeen Weddings. Six months. Resistance is futile …

  Joy Silverman and her boyfriend, Gabriel Winslow, seem perfect for each other. Living together in New York City, they have everything they want and everything in common – most important, that neither one wants to get married. Ever.

  Only now Joy’s finds herself facing the prospect of attending seventeen weddings in six months (including those of her father, mother, younger brother, and five of her closest girlfriends). As the wedding season heats up, Joy is thrown into a frenzy of shopping, dress fittings and ceremonies. She is forced to take a new look at why she is so marriage phobic when the rest of the world can’t wait to walk down the aisle.

  Wedding Season is a hilarious, thought-provoking look at love, relationships, personal integrity and social convention.

  Praise for Wedding Season:

  ‘Cosper’s a terrific, elegant writer … and Wedding Season is bursting with brilliant takes on bourgeois wedding culture …’ Time Out

  Ain’t She Sweet?

  Susan Elizabeth Phillips

  In high school Sugar Carey had reigned supreme. She alone had decided what or who was cool. Her spiral perm had been the perm against which all others were measured, and her opinion on which boys were acceptable to date the only one that counted. A beautiful, blonde – if not always benevolent – dictator, she had a reputation for being the wild child in her hometown, the girl most likely to set the world on fire, and leave a trail of destruction in her wake. When she left home she swore she’d never return. But now, fifteen years and several husbands later, she’s run out of money, luck and options …

  Only Sugar arrives back home to discover that everyone else is living her life. Her half sister is married to Sugar’s high school sweetheart, and the teacher she schemed to get fir
ed is now a successful novelist who owns her old house. She also discovers that people have long memories – especially where Sugar is concerned …

  ‘a wicked comedy … Don’t miss …’ Closer

  The Journal of Mortifying Moments

  Robyn Harding

  Kerry Spence is stuck in a dead end ad-agency job and a holding pattern with an ex-boyfriend who won’t quite stay ex. Every time she lets the ‘gorgeous Sam’ back into her bed, Kerry swears it’s the last but somehow she can’t resist.

  Everyone has an opinion about what Kerry’s next move should be. Her mother thinks handsome, successful Sam may be ‘the best she can do’. Kerry’s favourite self-help book says that she needs to find inner peace before she finds Mr Right, and her friends think the road to fulfilment should be paved with more vodka cocktails.

  Meanwhile Kerry’s therapist recommend that she keep a ‘diary of past encounters with men that may be contributing to a dysfunctional uasi-relationship’ – or, as Kerry sees it, a journal of mortifying moments. In these pages, amid the laugh-out-loud hilarity of Kerry’s exploits, emerges the story of a woman who needs to learn how to stop trying please everyone else, and please herself.

  A hilarious, heart-warming novel that will appeal to every woman who’s ever loved, lost or made a fool of herself.

  Body & Soul

  Sheila Norton

  As a hospital receptionist, Rosie Peacock is surrounded all day and every day by lots of attractive young men and women who don’t look old enough to be medical students, never mind fully-fledged doctors.

  So when one of Rosie’s colleagues describes her as being like an old armchair, she’s horrified. Even if PJ does mean that she’s a good friend and comforting to be around, Rosie would much rather be thought of as sexy, dynamic and charismatic. Surrounded by the beautiful people day in and day out, she’s starting to feel like the proverbial ugly duckling. She’s determined to change both body and soul, even if she’s not uite prepared for the conseuences. Especially when they come in the rather sexy form of the new consultant, Mr Ashley Connor …

  The latest light-hearted romantic comedy from the author of The Trouble With Ally and Other People’s Lives

  Shem Creek

  Dorothea Benton Frank

  Linda Breland is a single parent of two teenage daughters and Gracie, her youngest, is giving her a hard time. She’s reached the end of her tether even before she discovers birth control pills in Gracie’s school bag.

  So when she is offered the chance to move back to her home town, Linda grabs it. Despite her lack of experience, she convinces local restaurateur, Brad Jackson, to give her a job managing the Shem Creek Café. Ignoring Gracie’s protests at her enforced uprooting, Linda begins to hope that the Deep South and her sister Mimi’s good influence will work their magic on her rebellious daughter. And that maybe she too can find a better life, one in which she won’t be rushing around fulfilling everyone’s needs but her own.

  Praise for Dorothea Benton Frank:

  ‘echoes of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood’ Daily Mail

  ‘an author whose warm story telling skills will suck you in. The characters ache with life … Some of her one-liners are pure comic genius … all the more surprising that with the next sentence she’ll have you wiping away the tears’ Daily Mirror

  ‘Hilarious and wise’ Pat Conroy

  The Hot Flash Club

  Nancy Thayer

  Meet Faye, Marilyn, Alice, and Shirley. The four founding members of the Hot Flash Club, where the topics of motherhood, sex and men are discussed with double servings of chocolate cake …

  Faye is a determinedly cheerful widow with a tricky problem to bring to the club’s table: how can they catch her ‘perfect’ son-in-law cheating on her daughter?

  Shirley is a healer with a secret dream. But first she needs to believe in herself, in her abilities, and in her supportive friends.

  Marylin is a palaeontologist who has spent so many years looking at dried-up fossils, she feels she’s in danger of becoming one herself …

  Alice, the executive, has soared to the top of the corporate ladder. But as the inspiration behind the Hot Flash Club, she’s about to discover something extraordinary: contentment.

  A wise, wonderful and hilarious coming of (middle) age novel from the bestselling author of Between Husbands and Friends and Custody.

  ‘Nancy Thayer tackles her subject with gusto and infectious joie-de-vivre’ Elizabeth Buchan