Confessions Of A Demented Housewife

Before reading my private 'confessions'* please bear in mind the following: (1) My husband Joe and I are soul-mates. Nothing - including a smouldering lone father or Joe's teeny mid-life crisis - could ever come between us. (Hopefully he won't find out about smouldering Lone Father's sexed-up exposé of our secret 'affair' last year.) (2) Offspring Katie and Jack are well-adjusted and happy - even if Jack thinks he's a dog and Katie wants to be a Pussy Cat Doll. (3) VBF Louise makes new motherhood appear unnaturally glamorous. It simply isn't normal to fit back into size zero jeans so soon after giving birth - and I have the jelly belly to prove it. (4) I did not cynically engineer my close personal friendship with Celebrity Mom Angelica Law just to get invited to red carpet events. The whole newspaper-paparazzi-telly thing was NOT my fault - I can't help it if I've got star quality in bucket-loads, can I? *Note: The publisher 'borrowing' my diary and printing its contents does not amount to a confession. My arm had to be twisted very hard ...

Coco Swan has always been embarrassed by her name . . . With a name like Coco, people expect you to be as exotic and glamorous as the famous designer, not an ordinary-looking small-town antiques dealer who could win an award for living cautiously. But when a vintage Chanel handbag turns up in a box of worthless bric-a-brac, Coco's quiet world is suddenly turned upside down. Where did it come from? And is it just coincidence that it's the same bag Coco's late mother always wanted for her? When Coco discovers a mysterious, decades-old letter hidden in the bag's lining, she sets off on a quest to piece together the story behind it, stumbling across secrets that span three generations as she goes. Could the beautiful Chanel bag be about to teach Coco more than she wants to learn? Or will it show her just where her heart can take her if she lets it lead the way? Praise for Niamh Greene 'Gorgeously heart-warming and compelling . . . every page sparkles with Niamh Greene's trademark warmth and humour.' Melissa Hill 'Brilliantly astute.' OK!Magazine

What do you do when the love of your life turns out to be a good-for-nothing love rat? a) Pour your heart out to him in private letters that he'll never see? (Secretly you think it's a big fat waste of time but your therapist says it's the perfect way to express your inner rage and who are you to argue with science?) b) Pretend it's not happening and carry on? (The pressure to act normally will almost kill you of course - but it would be much worse if anyone ever suspected that your life was less than perfect.) c) Create a blog and tell the whole world about your problems? (You need advice and, if he won't listen to you, there are plenty of people out there who will. What harm can it do? Especially if you keep your identity top secret.) Three very different women have one thing in common - a good-for-nothing Casanova called Charlie. When he betrays them, they choose three very different ways to cope. But can they ever get over him? And will the love rat ever learn his lesson?

Miracle has carried pain, anger, shame, guilt, and bitterness so long she became numb and emotionless. For years she was her own worst enemy and waged war against herself. Without warning, her daydreams became nightmares, her ambition turned into manipulation, and her thoughts were cold calculated schemes. Miracle's years of being a sweet little girl who longed to hear a lullaby from her daddy at bedtime or make castles in the sand with her mama would never come to pass. Miracle was born and raised in a very small city where the entire inner city is a ghetto, oppression is real, poverty state of mind is a way of thinking, and drugs, alcohol, crime and incarceration is everyday life. On Miracle's journey you will discover how poverty, incarceration, bullying, drug smuggling, molestation, rape, drug/alcohol abuse, and hustling, tried to define her life as early as age nine. Welcome to Confessions of a HOusEwife and get ready to turn each page of this book with wide eyes of anticipation!

Known for his journalism, biographies and novels, A. N. Wilson turns a merciless searchlight on his own early life, his experience of sexual abuse, his catastrophic mistakes in love (sacred and profane) and his life in Grub Street – as a prolific writer. Before he came to London, as one of the “Best of Young British” novelists, and Literary Editor of the Spectator, we meet another A. N. Wilson. We meet his father, the Managing Director of Wedgwood, the grotesque teachers at his first boarding school, and the dons of Oxford – one of whom, at the age of just 20, he married, Katherine Duncan-Jones, the renowned Shakespearean scholar. The book begins with his heart-torn present-day visits to Katherine, now for decades his ex-wife, who has slithered into the torments of dementia. At every turn of this reminiscence, Wilson is baffled by his earlier self – whether he is flirting with unsuitable lovers or with the idea of the priesthood. His chapter on the High Camp seminary which he attended in Oxford is among the funniest in the book. We follow his unsuccessful attempts to become an academic, his aspirations to be a Man of Letters, and his eventual encounters with the famous, including some memorable meetings with royalty. The princesses, dons, paedophiles and journos who cross the pages are as sharply drawn as figures in Wilson's early comic fiction. But there is also a tenderness here, in his evocation of those whom he has loved, and hurt, the most.

A missing-persons case isn’t what it seems in this page-turning thriller from CWA Silver Dagger Award–winning author Sarah Dunant Tough-talking PI Hannah Wolfe takes whatever cases she can get. This time, it’s a missing person: Carolyn Hamilton, a twenty-three-year-old ballet dancer, has seemingly vanished into thin air. But while Hannah chases down dead-end leads, the dancer’s body is fished out of the Thames. She was eight months pregnant. The police claim she committed suicide, but Hannah doesn’t buy the official verdict. The private eye refuses to believe that Carolyn would kill herself and her unborn child, but she’s convinced that her death is somehow connected to the pregnancy. Hannah’s quest to find the baby’s father takes her to France, where an unusual ad Carolyn answered leads to an old, moneyed family keeping monstrous secrets. And not even Hannah can guess at a deception that stretches back decades. Forced to confront her own ambivalent feelings about commitment and motherhood, Hannah won’t rest until she gets justice for Carolyn—even if it means risking her own life. This thinking person’s thriller from New York Times–bestselling author Sarah Dunant introduces a female sleuth—reminiscent of P. D. James’s Cordelia Gray, Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, and Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone—who readers are bound never to forget. Birth Marks is the 1st book in the Hannah Wolfe Crime Novels, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

When Susie's maiden aunt gives her a housekeeping journal, she expects Susie to use it for jotting down nutritious recipes and planning household budgets. But Susie has more important things on her mind ... ... Like how to keep sane while trying to control a four-year-old diva who thinks she's Judy Garland, as well as a thrill-seeking toddler with a death wish. Not to mention managing a demanding husband who expects a home-cooked meal at least once a fortnight and inconsiderate parents who seem to think luxury spa breaks are more important than spending time with their grandchildren. On top of that, there's the small matter of the Lone Father at the children's play group who is clearly smitten and Susie's passing interest in Posh'n'Becks, Wayne and Colleen, Brad'n'Jen'n'Angelina ... Susie's journal chronicles a hectic year in the life of a stay at home mother, whose one ambition is to possess an outfit that is free of snot stains.