by Claire Sandy
The perfect bake is no piece of cake
Marie Dunwoody doesn’t want for much in life. She has a lovely husband, three wonderful children, and a business of her own. But her cupcakes are crap. Her meringues are runny and her biscuits rock-hard. She cannot bake for toffee. Or, for that matter, make toffee.
Marie can’t ignore the disappointed looks anymore, nor continue to be shamed by her neighbour and nemesis, Lucy Gray. Lucy whips up perfect profiteroles with one hand while ironing her bed sheets with the other. Marie’s had enough: this is the year it all changes. She vows to follow – to the letter – recipes from the Queen of Baking, and at all times ask, ‘What would Mary Berry do?’
Husband Robert has noticed that his boss takes crumb structure as seriously as budget cuts, and with redundancies on the horizon he too puts on a pinny. Twins Rose and Iris are happy to eat all the half-baked mistakes that come their way, but big brother Angus is more distant than usual, as if something is troubling him. And there is no one as nosy as a matching pair of nine-year-old girls . . .
Marie starts to realize that the wise words of Mary Berry can help her with more than just a Victoria sponge. But can Robert save the wobbling soufflé that is his career? And is Lucy’s sweet demeanour hiding something secretly sour?
A Very Big House in the Country
One house. Three families.
What could possibly go wrong?
For one long, hot summer in Devon, three families share one very big house in the country. The Herreras are two tired parents, three grumbling children and one promiscuous dog. The Littles: she’s gorgeous, he’s loaded – but maybe the equation for a truly happy marriage is a bit more complicated than that? As for the Browns, they seem oddly jumpy – especially around each other.
By the pool new friendships blossom, but at the kitchen door resentments simmer. Summer crushes form, secrets are swapped and when the adults loosen their inhibitions with litres of white wine they start to get a little too honest . . .
Mother hen to all, Evie Herrera has a life-changing announcement to make, one that could shatter the summer holiday and rock the foundations of her family. But will someone else beat her to it?
Snowed in for Christmas
Everybody wants it to snow at Christmas . . . Don’t they?
Asta’s plane touches down in Ireland as the first flakes of snow begin to settle. As the weather worsens, it turns what should be a flying visit into a snowed-in Yuletide with her chaotic family.
Asta fled her childhood village years ago, with a secret hidden deep within her. That secret is now a feisty sixteenyear-old, Kitty, who’s keen to meet her long-lost relatives. It seems there are many family mysteries waiting to be unwrapped, along with the presents under the tree . . .
Missing the man she left behind in London, yet drawn to a man she meets in Ireland, Asta is caught in an emotional snowstorm.
Maybe this Christmas Asta will find a cure for her long-broken heart?
Claire Sandy lives in Surrey with her husband, her daughter and their dogs. Before she wrote books, she made radio jingles and sold wool (not at the same time). Now she has her dream job as a novelist, having already written What Would Mary Berry Do?, A Very Big House in the Country and Snowed in for Christmas.
Also by Claire Sandy
What Would Mary Berry Do?
A Very Big House in the Country
Snowed in for Christmas
First published 2017 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2017 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
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www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5098-3129-6
Copyright © Just Grand 2017
Cover Images © Shutterstock
The right of Claire Sandy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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