More than eight years before the novel opens, Anne Elliot, then a lovely, thoughtful, warm-hearted 19 year old, accepted a proposal of marriage from the handsome young naval officer Frederick Wentworth. He was clever, confident, and ambitious, but poor and with no particular family connections to recommend him. Sir Walter, Anne's fatuous, snobbish father and her equally self-involved older sister Elizabeth were dissatisfied with her choice, maintaining that he was no match for an Elliot of Kellynch Hall, the family estate. Her older friend and mentor, Lady Russell, acting in place of Anne's late mother, persuaded her to break the engagement. Now 27 and still unmarried, Anne re-encounters her former love when his sister and brother-in-law, the Crofts, take out a lease on Kellynch. Wentworth is now a captain and wealthy from maritime victories in the Napoleonic wars. However, he has not forgiven Anne for rejecting him. While publicly declaring that he is ready to marry any suitable young woman who catches his fancy, he privately resolves that he is ready to become attached to any appealing young woman except for Anne Elliot.

For Lucy, the best Christmas present is forgetting the past. Eager to banish the ghost of Christmas past – when her boyfriend dumped her on the streets of Paris – Lucy is determined to make this the best Christmas ever. She rallies friends and family for an epic celebration that just happens to fall on the same day as her ex’s festive wedding. Furious at how she’s been treated, Lucy can’t help relishing the party v wedding smackdown. But when the wedding is threatened and only Lucy can help, can she find the spirit inside to save the day, or will this Christmas be even more disastrous than the last? (Full story available on Amazon.)

After seeing the photograph of Rose with her baby, Lloyd, Miles now knew beyond doubt that he was his son. One day LLoyd would inherit the Seton property empire, a business which Miles's father had created from scratch and which Miles now ran. He was determined that he would take responsibility for raising his son but to his intense frustration and anger this meant that he would be forced to make contact with Rose, the woman he had spent the better part of a year trying to forget. When he had first met Rose he had thought he had found his soul mate. But then his friend Max, whom he had known since childhood, had told Miles that Rose was cheating on him and he had the evidence to prove it. So not only had he been taken for a mug and fallen for a lying, traitorous bitch but now she had his son too. Rose was dreading having to meet with Miles. She had hidden away from the eyes of the world hoping to be left alone after the hurt of Miles's very public dumping of her but she knew that it was inevitable he would come after her now that a picture of Lloyd had been published in an international gossip magazine. Lloyd and Miles were as alike as peas in a pod. She was under no illusion that the Seton money machine and all the lawyers it needed would soon start grinding away at getting custody of LLoyd. She was still totally in the dark as to why Miles had left her when she was pregnant and now she was terrified that he would try to take LLoyd away from her too. But Rose was no pushover. She had been an international model in her teens and now was a successful businesswoman in her own right. If she had to she would give Miles the fight of his life. The problem was, Rose still yearned for the days before Miles had walked out on her, days she counted amongst the happiest in her life.