The Year of Taking Chances

On moving to Brighton, Georgie finds throwing herself into the city's delights fun and exciting, but before she knows it, she's sliding into all kinds of trouble. Charlotte is in the city for a new start, hoping to keep her head down. A terrible revelation sent Rosa running from London, but could her passion for food lead her to more interesting places? As the three tenants find each other, it's as if a whole new chapter of their lives has begun....

Meet the women in love with the very different Jones brothers: Izzy is determined to escape her troubled past, but flirtatious Charlie is causing complications. Alicia’s been happily married to loyal Hugh for years but secretly craves excitement. Emma’s relationship with David was once fun and romantic but trying for a baby has taken its toll. As the future of the family’s B&B becomes uncertain, Izzy, Alicia and Emma are thrown together unexpectedly.…

How do you say 'I love you' in Italian? Anna's knows the father she's never met is Italian. Now she's baking focaccia and learning the language, determined to go and find him. After Catherine's husband walked out on her, and she's trying to pick up the pieces of her life. But she discovers his deception runs even deeper than infidelity. As their Italian evening class gets underway, friendships form and love affairs blossom; it's going to be a year that they will never forget.

Polly has always been the high-flier of the family, with the glamorous lifestyle to match.… Clare is a single mum with two children, struggling to make ends meet in a ramshackle cottage. The two sisters are poles apart and barely on speaking terms. But then Polly’s fortunes change unexpectedly. Left penniless and with nowhere else to go, she’s forced back to the village where she and Clare grew up, and the sisters find themselves living together for the first time in years. With an old flame reappearing for Polly, a blossoming new career for Clare and a long-buried family secret in the mix, sparks are sure to fly.

A seaside holiday at Shell Cottage in Devon has always been the perfect escape for the Tarrant family. But this year everything has changed. Following her husband's recent death, Olivia is struggling to pick up the pieces. Harriet's looking forward to a break with her lovely husband, Robert, and teenage daughter, Molly. But unknown to Harriet, Robert is hiding a secret - and so, for that matter, is Molly....

Evie loves running her beach café in Cornwall, but with a baby on the way she's been told to put her feet up. Helen's come to Cornwall to escape the stress of city living. She hopes a seaside life will be the answer to all her dreams. When she sees a job advertised at the café, it sounds perfect. But the two women clash, and sparks fly. Can the pair of them put aside their differences in a crisis?

Maddie’s getting it from all sides. Her bitchy new boss at the radio station humiliates her live on air about her figure, her glamour-puss mum keeps dropping not-so-subtle hints that Maddie should lose weight and her kids are embarrassed to be seen with her after the disastrous Mums’ race at their school sports day. Something’s got to change. Maddie joins the local weight-watching group expecting more humiliation but instead finds two unlikely allies: bitter divorcee Lauren and shy Jess, the beautician.

The man Clemency loves belongs to someone else. She has to hide her true feelings - but when she ropes in an unsuspecting friend to help, wires start to get crossed. For the first time in Ronan's life his charm has failed him in winning over the woman he wants. Loving her from afar appears to be his only option. Belle seems to have the perfect boyfriend, but something isn't quite right. And now a long-buried secret is slowly rising to the surface. The truth has a funny way of revealing itself, and when it does St Carys will be a very different place indeed....

Fast Friends is a warm and funny romantic novel from Sunday Times best-selling author Jill Mansell. For fans of Lucy Diamond, Cathy Kelly and Marian Keyes. When bored housewife and mother Camilla Stewart impulsively invites her old school chums for dinner, she hardly imagines that the evening will shatter her comfortable existence. But Roz Vallender and Loulou Marks are no ordinary guests.

It's a beautiful day in Manchester, and four friends are meeting for a birthday lunch. But then they witness a shocking accident just metres away which acts as a catalyst for each of them. For Laura, it's a wake-up call to heed the ticking of her biological clock. Sensible Jo finds herself throwing caution to the wind in a new relationship. Eve, who has been trying to ignore the worrying lump in her breast, feels helpless and out of control. And happy-go-lucky India is drawn to one of the victims of the accident, causing long-buried secrets to rise to the surface.