Polly Waterford is recovering from a toxic relationship. Unable to afford their flat, she has to move miles away from everyone, to a sleepy little seaside resort in Cornwall, where she lives alone above an abandoned shop. And so Polly takes out her frustrations on her favourite hobby: making bread. But what was previously a weekend diversion suddenly becomes far more important as she pours her emotions into kneading and pounding the dough, and each loaf becomes better and better. With nuts and seeds, olives and chorizo, with local honey (courtesy of local bee keeper, Huckle), and with reserves of determination and creativity Polly never knew she had, she bakes and bakes and bakes... And people start to hear about it. Sometimes, bread really is life... And Polly is about to reclaim hers.

As dawn breaks over the Pont Neuf, and the pavements of the great city start to come to life, Claire Stanton is already awake and at work; already mixing and stirring the finest, smoothest, richest chocolate to be found anywhere; made entirely by hand and sold for a fortune in tiny amounts to the grandes dames of Paris. It is a huge shift from the chocolate factory she worked in back home in the north of England. Determined to seize the day, she moved out to Paris in a blaze of glory, thrilled at landing the job of her dreams. But now here she is, four years later, slaving in the back room every day from dawn till dusk; living in a garret; hardly a friend in the world. Claire feels she can barely continue. Should she give up her dreams of becoming a chocolatier? Because following your dreams can sometimes take a little more than buying a Eurostar ticket...

Contains mouth-watering recipes! Issy Randall, proud owner of the Cupcake Cafe, is in love and couldn't be happier. Her new business is thriving and she is surrounded by close friends, even if her cupcake colleagues Pearl and Caroline aren't quite as upbeat about the upcoming season of snow and merriment. But when her boyfriend Austin is scouted for a possible move to New York, Issy is forced to face up to the prospect of a long-distance romance. And when the Christmas rush at the cafe — with its increased demand for her delectable creations — begins to take its toll, Issy has to decide what she holds most dear. This December, Issy will have to rely on all her reserves of courage, good nature and cinnamon, to make sure everyone has a merry Christmas, one way or another...

Now, you would obviously never, ever look up your exes on Facebook. Nooo. And even if you did, you most certainly wouldn't run off trying to track them down, risking your job, family and happiness in the process. Posy Fairweather, on the other hand... Posy is delighted when Matt proposes — on top of a mountain, in a gale, in full-on romantic mode. But a few days later disaster strikes: he backs out of the engagement. Crushed and humiliated, Posy starts thinking. Why has her love life always ended in total disaster? Determined to discover how she got to this point, Posy resolves to get online and track down her exes. Can she learn from past mistakes? And what if she has let Mr Right slip through her fingers on the way?

The streets of London are the perfect place to discover your dreams... They may be twin sisters, but Lizzie and Penny Berry are complete opposites — Penny is blonde, thin and outrageous; Lizzie is quiet, thoughtful and, well, definitely not thin. But they both share a desperate desire to DO something with their lives. When, out of the blue, they learn they have a grandmother living in Chelsea, who asks them to flat-sit her King's Road pad while she is in hospital, the girls' ambitions finally seem to be falling into place. But, as they soon discover, it's not easy to become an It Girl, and west end boys aren't at all like Hugh Grant...

Rosie Hopkins, city girl to the end, is about to face major upheaval. Her elderly aunt Lily, who lives slap bang in the middle of nowhere, is ill and so, taking a leave of absence from the bustling London hospital where she works, Rosie is putting her friends, her boyfriend and her entire life on hold to move to the depths of the Peak District to help. She's fairly certain she won't be able to get a decent cup of coffee, or Heat magazine — and she's dreading it. Lilian Hopkins has run the village sweetshop all her life — through wartime and family feuds, observing as the village around her has grown and changed with the times. As she struggles with the idea that it might finally be time to sell up, she also wrestles with the secret history hidden behind the jars of beautifully coloured sweets. Will Rosie come round to the charms of the old sweetshop on the Northern road? Can Lilian come to terms with her past, and learn to let go?