For Imogen Redcliffe leaving a man with an incurable disease was unthinkable. But it didn't stop her longing for her freedom. Perhaps therefore it was dangerous to embark on a holiday with a group of strangers? Two weeks in Seychelles may have seemed like paradise on paper but the reality would prove rather different. In the company of, among others, a sex-starved doctor, a shrewd psychotherapist and a frightened vegetarian, Imogen is forced to face up to her own shortcomings and to take action. It's a liberating experience, but not quite in the way she intended!

Nell is content with her life until she falls in love. From the moment she sees Bottom Cottage, deep in a west country valley, she knows she has to have it. But things become more complicated when she meets its owner, Rob, and falls for him as well. All her dreams seem to have come true, but there are disturbing undercurrents beneath the surface. Rob has two young children and an almost-ex wife, and as Nell struggles with her new role as stepmother she finds herself trapped by conflicting interests and undermined by uncertainty. Does Rob really want her, or are all his feelings for his children and the cottage? Did she fall in love with Rob because of his house, or do they have a genuine future together? Maggie Makepeace's fourth novel is a deeply engaging and witty tale of love and trust, the unequal joys of making a new life, and the importance - and rewards - of hope.

When Phoebe married Duncan Moon, she imagined they would get around to loving one another. But she hadn't bargained on the stifling effect on her husband of his alarming family, nor the many ways in which the family would contrive to exclude her from their affluent but hollow lives. It is only when Phoebe reads the hidden diaries of her father-in-law's ex-mistress that she learns the truth about the Moons - and discovers love where she had never thought she'd find it.In this wickedly funny first novel Maggie Makepeace paints a devastating portrait of upper middle-class family life. By turns hilarious, painful, tragic and unexpectedly poignant, this is black comedy at it startling best.

Hector is in search of a woman. Not because he wants to fall in love but because, after the failure of his first marriage, he wants a son. But as he determinedly pursues his ambition, he underrates the force of his charm and, nine months later, finds he has more than one heir to choose from... In his search for the 'perfect' wife, Hector complicates the lives of four very different women; Jess the repressed photographer, Wendy the fluffy doormat, Caroline the career executive, and Zillah the bohemian. And as Hector strives to bring his life back under control he discovers that biology is stranger than logic, and is forced to acknowledge that it's the best laid plans that often fall most spectacularly apart.