Showing results by author "Gillian Harvey" in All Categories

After ten years of loyal service, Daisy Butterworth has been made redundant. Like any clever woman, she knows the cure to redundancy is a little too much wine and her best friend. Only the next morning, Daisy has more than a hangover...she has a whole new house—in France! Seeing this as an opportunity instead of a disaster, she’s excited about finally moving to France, just as she and her husband always dreamed of. However, Daisy is in for another surprise. Despite planning to move there for over 20 years, her husband never actually intended to go.

As the sun rises over the little Provence village where single mother Adeline has escaped with her little girl Lily, she breathes deeply. This is their new beginning. Here, she can forget the lies her family told her. Here, she can start her story again. Later she opens the door to the town’s tiny bookstore, where she is to work, ready to meet the mysterious owner Monique for the first time. She expected an ordinary bookshop. But this bookstore feels somehow different… magical. Breathing in the smell of books, she feels a jolt of something. It feels like a new chapter beginning.

When Leah and her husband moved to France, it was with the dream of becoming self-sufficient. But in truth, it’s not the ‘good life’ she’d imagined, as three hours of digging barely yield a single straggly carrot. Worse, her teenage daughter is acting up, and her husband seems to find every strange excuse under the hot French sun to disappear. So when her friend entreats her to join the new book club she’s forming, Leah decides it’s something she will do for herself.

Bella's living her dream life, running a beautiful, rural French B&B and has finally put her past behind her. But when her husband suddenly asks for a divorce, everything changes. Forced to abandon everything she'd built before, she finds herself moving to the beautiful town of Versailles, where she takes a job working in a hotel, and moves into a chaotic house share. At first, it doesn't feel like a problem that she can't seem to convince her young housemates she's older than them – it's quite nice to pretend she's in her 20s again.

Nina has always played it safe. But when her divorce papers come through on her fortieth birthday she decides enough is enough. She’s always chosen the sensible route, staying in her stable job and marrying her rather boring ex. In fact – she realises – she’s chosen security over excitement for years. Ever since she refused to elope with her first love: beautiful, poetic, thoughtful Pierre, the man she met aged 17, on her French exchange. The only man who ever made her heart race. Maybe it’s time to take a few risks?

Sophie and Tom first visited Paris together as students. During their weekend away in the world’s most romantic city, falling in love – with the place, and each other – was simply inevitable. They resolved to return every summer and kept their word, until something happened that changed their world forever.

High-flyer Becky Thorne cannot believe what she’s being told. She doesn’t need to be signed off for burnout! Life has been a bit chaotic lately, that’s all. As if dealing with her enviable job and permanent meddling from her mother aren’t enough, she’s also inherited a café in the Loire from an estranged great-aunt, complete with sitting tenant who refuses to budge.

Click buy: a French chateau. Condition: ‘may require improvement'. It seemed like a good idea. Selling everything we owned. Just Mark and me, swapping our tiny, little terraced London home – and the heartbreak of not being able to start a family – for an entire chateau in the middle of France… It’s everyone’s dream. And now it’s coming true for us. As I use the rusty key to open the big creaking wooden door of the tumbledown fairytale chateau that’s officially our new home, I wonder: what could possibly go wrong?

Interior designer Nicky always used to know how to make the best of things. Ever since she lost her husband though, things haven’t been easy. She’s had to raise her two daughters alone and she’s so proud to see them all grown up, and she knows that’s down to her. But she can’t help but feel like she doesn’t know what to do with her life now. Then her best friend begs her to help out. Jenny is a TV exec and her new renovation show is in peril. Only Nicky can help. The catch – Nicky needs to fly to Provence… tomorrow.

Jessica Bradley has it all: the perfect boyfriend; influential healthy eating blog; successful PR company; and wonderful daughter, Anna. Or at least that is what her thousands of followers believe. The truth is, her boyfriend just broke up with her in four words on a Post-it; her zest for healthy eating has all but disappeared; her PR success is all reliant on her now not-so-honest online life; and she just got caught eating her daughter's Coco-Pops. 

Only child out of the house – so far out that she’s gone all the way to Australia! A husband, who has requested a break. Life isn’t quite going as planned for Katy. She’s suddenly at a loss, but she still has her friends Sam, Vicky and Ivy. The girls have been there for her through thick and thin and they’re not about to stop now. However, they think Katy might need more than boot camp...so they kidnap her and head off to France on a last minute retreat.

Clare's life is perfect...steady job, loving husband, two kids and lovely townhouse. Except her husband Toby's barely listened to a thing she's said since he landed his new TV gig, her daughter can't stand the sight of her and her boss barely even knows her name. It seems that with middle age she's become more invisible than a grey power suit and no matter what she does no one seems to notice her. Not the mad haircut, crazy outfits or brilliant job performance.

Et s'il était temps pour une maman en crise de changer de vie ? Un feel good amusant et réconfortant pour rêver d'autre chose que d'une « vie parfaite ». La vie de Clara Bailey est merveilleuse. Une carrière réussie, un mari aimant, deux enfants et une superbe maison de ville. Parfait ! Du moins, ce sont les apparences. En fait, elle ne s'est jamais sentie aussi invisible. Son patron se souvient à peine de son nom, son mari est occupé par son nouveau job à la télévision et sa fille ne l'a jamais trouvée si embarrassante !