Wedding planner Madeleine lives in a picture-perfect thatched cottage, in a picture-perfect English country village. There's only one problem - dream cottages take a lot of work, and with a leaking roof, and not enough money to pay for it, what Maddie needs now is a big wedding to plan. So she's delighted when she takes on the wedding of Californian heiress Peyton, to all-round good guy Patrick. She's less delighted to find out that she's going to have help - from the admittedly gorgeous, but equally maddening, tall, dark and handsome best man Lorcan. The wedding is set to take place in a castle in rural Ireland, and so, in no time, Maddie and Lorcan are on their way to Ballalee. Life hasn't always been easy for Maddie, and work has become her refuge. But soon the warmth and humour of Lorcan's Irish family and friends start to chip away at Maddie's walls. And as the big day approaches, it might be time for Maddie to focus less on her clients' love life and more on her own... 'Read yourself happy' with Maxine Morrey's latest feel-good and utterly uplifting love story, guaranteed to make you smile. Perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane and Sophie Kinsella. Praise for Maxine Morrey: 'An uplifting read that stops you in your tracks and makes you wonder "....but what if?" Absorbing, funny and oh-so-romantic, I loved every page!' Rachel Burton 'A super sweet read, guaranteed to warm any winter evening' Samantha Tonge 'A lovely story that kept me turning the pages' Jules Wake 'A stunning, perfect novel - it literally took my breath away.' The Writing Garnet, 5 stars 'A warm hug of a book.' Rachel's Random Reads, 5 stars

Do you fondly remember messaging your crush on MSN after school? Miss those shoes that never recovered from the sticky floors of your hometown nightclub? And can't stand your spare-room housemate after lockdown?! Then escape with this year's most feel-good read! _______ 'THE YEAR'S MOST ORIGINAL ROMCOM' ELLE 'David Nicholls for millennials' i 'Made me smile, laugh, cringe and inwardly cheer' 5***** READER REVIEW 'Found myself wincing and laughing with familiarity' EMMA GANNON 'Hilarious' Evening Standard, 'Best New Books in 2021' 'Funny and compelling from page one!' LUCY VINE _______ Ellen and Alexa have survived hangovers, dodgy landlords and most of their twenties together. But can they survive this? While nursing The Hangover from Hell, a flooded kitchen leads best friends Ellen and Alexa, and hapless housemate Jack, into their attic to turn off the water supply. But when Ben - Alexa's date from the night before - walks in, the door slams, the handle breaks and all four are trapped. Cue the Worst Ever morning-after-the-night-before. As the hours tick by, Ellen nurses her sore head and watches as her best friend falls for this handsome stranger. Only for a horrifying realization to hit. She is sure she knows Ben from somewhere. Frantically searching her memories, Ellen pieces together exactly how they've met before. Is Ben really who she thinks he is? And, most importantly, what on earth is she going to do about it . . . This is a hilarious story of housemates and hangovers and friendship and dating as four twenty-somethings discover what The Worst morning-after-the-night-before really looks like . . . Fans of Beth O'Leary, Mhairi McFarlane and Dolly Alderton will LOVE this oh-so relatable tale of what can happen behind locked doors AS SEEN IN GRAZIA _______ 'The Lock In is a dream read: an immaculately plotted romcom which vividly captures both late teenagehood and twentysomething houseshares' i 'I LOVED this book . . . I highly recommend The Lock In' CARRIE HOPE FLETCHER 'Beautifully written, warm and fun with a dose of early noughties nostalgia' Laura Kay, author of The Split 'I cannot recommend this book enough!' 5***** READER REVIEW 'A funny, joyful hug of a book! A nostalgic, pitch perfect ode to the awkwardness and hilarity of yearning teenage years and house sharing in your twenties' Cressida McLaughlin 'Immensely readable, witty and well-crafted . . . a very millennial tale of love, loneliness and friendship' i

Shepherd Mead, bestselling author of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, came to live in England with his family in 1958. Six years later he published a satirical handbook for fellow Americans to guide them through the nuances of British culture and save them from blunders: 'Write down now that pants always mean underpants', he advises. 'What you wear out in the open are trousers. Mistakes in this area can lead to nasty misunderstandings.' Structured around the fictional experience of an American couple Peggy and Buckley Brash and their two children, the book covers such topics as 'How to Dress in England', 'The Dream House and How to Rebuild it', and 'How to Live with the Upper Classes Without Having Any Money'. Through the Brash family's encounters with the British and their bewildered conversations with each other as they attempt to interpret an alien way of life, Mead answers pertinent questions such as 'Do English schools create sex madness?' and 'Is England really a pest hole?' with quirky and affectionate humour. Written with the light touch and incisive wit which brought Mead such success with his earlier book, and deftly illustrated with dynamic cartoons, How to Live Like A Lord without Really Trying is packed with gems on Anglo-American differences and pithy advice which tells us as much about the British of the 1960s as it does about their visitors from across the Pond.

'Such a lovely, funny read. Smart, witty and full of heart.' Ruth JonesNatalie and Carl are newlyweds, but the honeymoon period is over already. Carl has just announced he has bought their first home at auction without telling Natalie where it is, never mind showing her a picture of it. Natalie is horrified to discover that the dream home is in Little Wyford, mere minutes away from Carl's ex-wife Antonia. And to make matters worse, Antonia's palatial country mansion has a fully-functioning roof (and a heated swimming pool!), unlike the ramshackle cottage Carl has bought for them... Antonia is Little Wyford's Queen Bee, mistress of the book club, organiser of the Christmas Fair and leader of the ladies-who-lunch. No matter how hard she tries, Natalie just doesn't fit in, and when Antonia insists on referring to Carl as 'Our Husband', Natalie's dreams of happily-ever-after take another nose dive. Second-hand furniture has much to recommend it, especially when doing up a country cottage, second-hand clothes can be ever-so chic, but second-hand husbands are proving to be a very bad idea indeed... Can Natalie ever escape the label of Wife Number Two or is she destined to share her husband forever? Hilariously funny, wickedly witty, but with a heart of gold and a warmth and wisdom that are all its own, A Second-Hand Husband is Claire Calman's tour de force. 'So engrossing, you'll read until four in the morning!' Jilly Cooper 'With her trademark warmth and wit, Calman unpacks the secrets everyone is keeping' Wendy Holden Praise for Claire Calman: 'Don't take this hilarious, touching and very clever novel to bed if you've got to rise very early the next day, because it is so engrossing, you'll read until four in the morning. Claire Calman's plot twists and turns with endless surprises...' Jilly Cooper 'I really, really enjoyed it - I devoured it over four nights. Such a lovely, funny read. Smart, witty and full of heart. The characters were so well defined - I felt I knew them intimately. And the cottage and the pond and village - all the locations in fact were so beautifully depicted, I was completely transported there! But also the dialogue was a joy and such great humour - I laughed out loud on many occasions.' Ruth Jones 'A beautifully observed tale of new love and blending families, with a heroine I was rooting for from the very first page.' Shari Low on A Second-Hand Husband 'A beautiful book, so compassionate... and ultimately very hopeful. I enjoyed it hugely.' Marian Keyes 'A clever, bittersweet, uplifting novel' Sophie Kinsella 'Writing with proper heart' Rachel Joyce 'The characterisation is brilliant, and the astute storytelling, punctuated by stiletto-sharp wit, produces an effervescent and spirit-lifting story.' Sunday Mirror 'A poignant and beautifully articulated tale of love and loss, memory and forgetting, grief and guilt, new love and letting go. I was engrossed, often tearful, and finally, uplifted.' Isobel Wolff 'Simply wonderful. I was totally enchanted, devoured it in a day, and have been raving about it ever since.' Fiona Walker