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| KATE JACOBS | BRENDA JANOWITZ | LISA JEWELL |
| CATHERINE JINKS | MILLY JOHNSON | RACHEL JOHNSON |
| CHRISTINA JONES |
KATE JACOBS
The Friday Night Knitting Club (2007)
A club develops at Georgia Walker's yarn shop, as some of her regulars gather on Friday nights to knit and chat. They include Anita, who helps Georgia run the shop and look after her daughter Dakota; Peri, a pre-law student turned handbag designer; Darwin, a grad student in women's studies; and Lucie, a soon-to-be single mother who begins filming a video on knitting and the club. Georgia's world is rocked when first Dakota's father James returns into their lives, wanting to get to know his teen daughter; and then her former best friend Cat (now a rich but unhappy Park Avenue wife) hires her to make some clothes. But as it turns out, it is at this time of her life that Georgia needs her friends the most.
7/10
To come:Comfort Food
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BRENDA JANOWITZ
Jack with a Twist (2008)
In this sequel to Scot on the Rocks, Brooke is back, and newly engaged to fellow attorney Jack. If planning their wedding wasn't enough, Brooke also gets to lead her first court case, representing her wedding dress designer - and the opposing lawyer is none other than her fiancé. And the experienced litigator certainly isn't planning on going easy on her. Read it to experience the nightmare of keeping the two sets of parents happy (hers a kosher butcher and Jewish housewife and his a judge and vegetarian socialite). As much as I realised how much I'd missed Brooke once I started reading (oh please, you know you did too), this needed more of a twist to make it better than the original.
7/10
Scot on the Rocks (2007)
Manhattan attorney Brooke Miller has no qualms about attending her ex-boyfriend's wedding to a Hollywood actress. After all she'll be with her Scottish boyfriend Douglas, who'll probably have put a ring on her own finger by then. But when Douglas breaks up with her, she desperately needs someone else to fill his kilt on the day. With best friend Vanessa and colleague Jack in tow, Brooke heads off to LA, determined to survive the wedding with her dignity ever-so-slightly intact. After all, they've crammed up on Scottish facts, her bikini line is waxed and she's got a shiny (but fake) sparkler on her ring finger. But will lost luggage, a high school nemesis and a rogue Australian accent be her undoing? Brooke is an engaging character who'll keep you smiling as she lurches from mishap to mishap.
8/10
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LISA JEWELL
Vince and Joy (2005)
Vince and Joy meet at a caravan park during their late teens but had to part abruptly. Over the ensuing years their paths nearly cross several times as each settles for the wrong people. Is their destiny so strong that it will pull them back together again - despite numerous missteps? This reminds me a lot of Cecelia Ahern's Where Rainbows End but the unique element is that these two romantic leads are hardly together throughout the book.
6/10
One-Hit Wonder (2001)
Bee Bearhorn had a number one hit single in 1985 - and was destined to become Britain's answer to Madonna. But instead she becomes a one-hit wonder. When she dies alone in a London flat 15 years later, it's up to her timid, gangly half-sister Ana to collect her belongings. Leaving their agoraphobic mother in Devon, Ana tracks down Bee's closest friends (and the only ones at the funeral) - the exotic singer Lol and long-time driver Flint - and they set out to uncover what happened to Bee. Why did she have a secret country cottage, who is Zander and where is her missing cat? Ana's journey of self-discovery as she finds out how Bee's glamorous life fell apart is told by the interweaving of past and present events. Well worth a read.
7/10
Also by author:
31 Dream Street; A Friend of the Family; Thirtynothing; Ralph's Party
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CATHERINE JINKS
Spinning Around (2004)
Mother-of-two Helen's life is sent into a spin when a friend tells her she saw her husband, Matt, looking too cosy at a lunch with The Girl with Purple Hair. Rather than confront Matt directly, Helen starts checking their phone accounts, rifling through his drawers and employing a private detective.
6/10
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MILLY JOHNSON
The Birds and the Bees (2008)
Romance writer Stevie Honeywell is counting down to her wedding, when fiancé Matthew goes away on a business trip. Then Adam MacLean, a big, loud, red-haired Scot, turns up on her doorstep, with evidence that his love Jo and Matthew have actually gone away together to Majorca. Stevie, who's heard all about Adam's abuse from Jo, can now see why her friend could no longer stay with this psycho, while Adam takes one look at the flour-splattered wreck of a woman and can understand why any man would leave her for his lovely Jo. But together they team up to wage some psychological warfare on the new couple. Single mum Stevie decides to let Matthew go without a fuss and she pretends to date Adam to drive them both wild with jealousy. So like the Scottish jig The Birds and the Bees, they all swap partners. And it's a dance where all four will discover that love can either sting you or be oh so sweet.
7/10
The Yorkshire Pudding Club (2007)
When three Yorkshire friends picnic on top of an ancient fertility symbol, who would have imagined that within months all three would be pregnant. For Helen, the pregnancy is a dream come true, if only her marriage with controlling Simon wasn't crumbling before her eyes. For career-minded Janey who's up for a promotion, it's a nightmare as she never wanted kids but husband George is ecstatic. And then there's Elizabeth, who loses her job after letting her hormones take over and telling the boss to stick his job. Amid the determined return of a man she once pushed away, she fears that she will never love the child she is carrying.
7/10
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RACHEL JOHNSON
Notting Hell (2006)
Mimi and Clare live on the communal garden in Notting Hill where it is very much a case of the haves and have-yachts. While Mimi's interest is piqued by the neighbourhood's new billionaire, Clare is keeping an eye of some illicit going-ons, of the adultery and construction kind. Each is striving to be the best Notting Hill mummy - Mimi just needs the six-figure income; Clare the baby.
6/10
Also by author:
The Mummy Diaries
To come:
Shire Hell
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CHRISTINA JONES
Love Potions (2006)
Things start going amiss in Bagley-cum-Russet when beauty therapist Sukie Ambrose finds a naked man in her bed and discovers her aromatherapy oils are jetting off on someone else's honeymoon. So she ignores the warnings of a village old-timer and uses the plants in her cottage garden to supply her massage oils. Suddenly her clients start falling in love with the most unlikely characters. But should Sukie use the potions in her own love spell or should she leave her flatmate's boyfriend well alone?
5/10
Also by author:
Heaven Sent, Seeing Stars, Hubble Bubble, Tickled Pink
To come:
Happy Birthday