Veronica Henry

It's a frosty night in November as a group of passengers climb aboard the Orient Express for the journey of a lifetime from London to Venice. As they settle into the luxury of their cabins and take their first sips of champagne, they all have different hopes and expectations.

Some have waited a lifetime for the experience, for others, it is a surprise; for many, a celebration. One thing is certain, the journey won't be uneventful.

As they share lunch, afternoon tea, cocktails and dinner to the tinkling of the grand piano, there are revelations, confessions and assignations. As the train sweeps on, stories unfold against the most romantic and infamous setting in the world.

In a gorgeous quay-side hotel in Cornwall, people are arriving for a long weekend . . . Claire owns 'The Townhouse by the
Sea' with her irascible partner Luca, and is not prepared for a visitor who turns her whole world upside down. For Angelica,
working at the hotel gives her a taste of the luxury she so desperately wants - but with a young brother to look after, will she ever
 have time to herself? Trevor and Monique are looking for something to distract them from a tragedy in their past. And Colin is trying to make amends for something he bitterly regrets . . . Here are affairs of the heart, lies, scandal and secrets - all wrapped up in one long, hot weekend.

Delilah Rafferty has lived out her tempestuous marriage to hell-raiser Raf in the full glare of the media spotlight. Now, from the luxurious comfort of her beautiful kitchen, Delilah is planning her birthday party, a night that will see a star-studded gathering of friends and family celebrate in traditional Rafferty style. But she has more on her mind than just invitations... Raf has been offered a part in a movie he can't refuse. But will that mean he'll succumb to the temptations he's struggled so hard to resist for the last ten years - beautiful women and too much wine? And Delilah's three daughters, Coco, Violet and Tyger, are building careers of their own, only too aware that the press are waiting for them to slip up. For although the Rafferty girls might look like angels, they are only human. As with all families, there are secrets and rivalries bubbling away, and on one gloriously starry night, it's all going to come spilling out This is your invitation to a birthday party of the year...

'FOR SALE: a rare opportunity to purchase a beach hut on the spectacular Everdene Sands. "The Shack" has been in the
family for fifty years, and was the first to be built on this renowned stretch of golden sand...' Jane Milton doesn't want to sell
her beloved beach hut, which has been the heart of so many family holidays and holds so many happy memories. But when her
husband dies, leaving her with an overwhelming string of debts, she has no choice but to sell. THE BEACH HUT follows the stories of
the people who own the beach huts, families who come to Everdene each year, people who fall in - or out of - love, remembering their pasts, or trying to forget them... Veronica Henry has brilliantly drawn together the comings and goings of life at the beach huts over one long, hot, lazy summer...

Forgive and forget? Could you...? When girl-about-town Charlotte discovers her husband has been arrested for fraud, she flees to the wilds of Exmoor to nurse her broken heart. Yet despite the slower pace of life, she finds she's not the only person whose life is in turmoil. There's Sebastian, bad boy of the British art scene, determined to drink the local pub dry while his wife lives it up in London. Then Fitch, who married the high-spirited Hayley thinking he would find wedded bliss, but is struggling to keep up with her outrageous demands. And finally Penny, recently divorced and quietly determined to have more fun second time around - but who with? As Charlotte adapts to a life without LK Bennett and Starbucks on the doorstep, she turns to her newfound friends for advice. Can she find it in her heart to forgive her husband for what he did? And if she does, will it be too late?

In the Gloucestershire village of Honeycote, country life is anything but quiet. Maybe it's something to do with all that fresh air, but it's the kind of place where passions run high... The Liddiard family are well known in Honeycote - and now there is to be a big wedding. But will everything go according to plan? Lucy Liddiard knows her husband is no saint, but isn't prepared for his latest confession. Bride-to-be Mandy has no idea what joining the Liddiards really means. And local girl Mayday, wild child, rebel and free spirit, is thinking the unthinkable - with unimaginable consequences .

Bruno Thorne is the self-crowned king of Mariscombe, a faded seaside resort crammed with chip shops and amusement arcades. But things are on the turn because the resort has been picked as a potential holiday hot-spot. Meanwhile, George Law wants to do for Mariscombe what Rick Stein did for Padstowe (even though he's not entirely sure what to do with a red mullet) and, thanks to a last minute cock-up by the estate agent, George outbids Bruno for the rundown Rocks hotel. At last he can realise his dream and, with his gorgeous ex-lingerie model girlfriend Lisa at his side, surely nothing can hold him back...But George hasn't counted on disgruntled locals, infuriating ex-wives...or Bruno Thorne's apparent interest in Lisa.

Eversleigh Manor provides the perfect location for hit new television show, Lady Jane Investigates. But when the film crew descends en masse, no one could have predicted that romance would be brewing before the clapperboard had snapped its last. Least of all Guy Portias, heir to the manor and favourite beau of leading lady, Richenda Fox. And Guy's rash proposal of marriage in the drunken wake of the after-show party is only the first of his worries. After all, his mother has her heart set on running Country House Weekends for the discerning holidaymaker and her new employee, Honor, has a talent for mass catering . . . and for making Guy feel a little warm under the collar. But Honor is preoccupied with her own problems - a fickle ex-boyfriend is hovering in the wings and her best friend, Henty, seems inordinately distracted by her smouldering new groom, Travis. Throw in a long-lost mother, a philandering husband and a floozy of a florist and watch the residents of Eversleigh village work themselves into a lather of epic proportions.

Life in the bosom of the Wilding family has its ups and downs From the moment she arrives back to find a half-naked man in the kitchen, nothing about returning to the Shropshire village of Upper Faviell is quite what Jamie Wilding expected. For much has changed at Bucklebury Farm in the months she's been travelling the world since the death of her mother...Her best friend's wife has gone completely off the rails, her father is behaving like a love-sick teenager - and he's about to sell off the farm. What's worse, the shark threatening to take away Jamie's family home is the man who made off with her heart twelve years ago. To defend her legacy and have a chance to discover the true love she craves, Jamie will have to confront a long-running family feud, her father, and her own past. And she'll have to answer the question: is home always where the heart is?

Welcome to Honeycote. Beware of the wild life. Suzanna and Barney Blake are swapping city life for the countryside –
determined to breathe new life into the Honeycote Arms and a marriage touched by tragedy. Newly divorced Ginny Tait
arrives in Honeycote at around the same time – with very nubile twin daughters and an awful lot of baggage. If the newcomers
expected to find a sleepy English village, they quickly discover that a whole host of colourful characters have long woken up to more
interesting ways of using the bedroom. Throw in a dodgy businessman with a secret past, and Honeycote is soon a veritable hotbed of passiuon and intrigue. Will Ginny be blinded by choice and go for Mr Wrong again? Will Suzanna and Barney find happiness in Honeycote? And if they do, will it be with each other? An intoxicating blend of true love and hidden agendas, Making Hay proves once and for all that village life doesn’t necessarily mean the quiet life …

The Liddiards have lived at Honeycote House for generations. But all that might be about to change ... Rakishly charming
Mickey Liddiard has several problems. Unbeknownst to his angelic wife Lucy, his family run business Honeycote brewery - the
 mainstay of picturesque Honeycote - is up to its beer-bottle neck in debt. His drinking is getting out of control. And his affair with local millionaire's wife Kay is more about peace-keeping than passion. And for each of Mickey's misdemeanours there is a knife being sharpened. Ambition, greed and good old-fashioned revenge all conspire to bring about his downfall - but will true love save the day?