Who would have thought a wine course could be life-changing? But a group
of people signing on for wine-expert Sam's course are about to find
out.
Ellie is planning her dream wedding to accountant David who has
just been head-hunted by a prestigious firm. She detests social
pretensions but he seems overawed by his elite new colleagues. Can they
overcome these differences?
Rachel is the beautiful wife of newly
elected politician, Carl. Perfect life, perfect home, perfect children
but is anything ever as perfect as it seems? Does Carl have a roving eye
and is Rachel too fond of her wine?
Ronan's marriage to shopaholic
Louise is teetering on a knife-edge and, when he loses his job, things
go from bad to worse. Then Sam offers him a job in one of his wine
shops. But can he get his life back on track?
Zita, who works in
television, is fiercely ambitious and has set her sights on Rachel's
husband to further her success. Will she be able to ensnare him?
Eight
weeks later, they know their wines but everything else has changed out
of all recognition.
Kennedy's Cafés & Chocolate is about to celebrate its centenary year. Four generations of Kennedys have mastered the flavours of chocolate and coffee. Now, Owen Kennedy is expanding the business into the world of wine.
Ruby Hart has worked her way up the corporate ladder to become Owen's right-hand woman. Excited by the challenge of introducing wine to the cafés, she sets off with Owen to meet their prospective partners, the Boselli family, on their wine-growing estate near Lake Garda, Italy.
However, as Ruby's taste buds are awakened to new possibilities, other desires are also ignited, and amorous farmhand Alfonso is determined that she experiences the true taste of Italy. And is Owen's relationship with Emma Boselli strictly business?
Meanwhile, Owen's wife Katherine is invited to Africa by the Kenyan Coffee Growers Society. There, she finds herself enraptured by the Maasai culture as the heat and dark intensity of Kenya arouses feelings she'd thought she'd lost forever.
It seems that the Kennedys passions lie everywhere but with their business. Responsibilities seem to pile increasingly on Ruby's shoulders. But Ruby has her own secrets to protect and all may not be as it first appears.
It's Halloween in Las Vegas and things are crazier than normal for
Connie the wedding planner. Vicky and Frank are in town for their
nuptials but she soon realises that he has more on his mind than wedding
bells. Vicky's teenage daughter Tina is less than impressed until she
meets Connie's moody and enigmatic son Kyle. Frank's brother John is
trying to hold everyone together but then something happens that turns
the wedding party on their heads at 4am in Las Vegas!
Life and love seem
to have slipped through Suzanne's fingers but then, new to Facebook,
she stumbles upon more than she expected when she receives a friend
request from old flame Ronan in Boston. He's on his way to Las Vegas for
a work convention and Suzanne's friend Eddie convinces her that she
should go too. What has she got to lose?
When they all meet in Binion's
Casino the cards have already been dealt but will there be a winner?
From the Heart reveals the unexpected tales that lie beneath the surface
of every-day lives, through a memorable cast of characters all in
search of their own happy endings. A hot date gets off to a disastrous
start; a young couple long for peace and quiet as they prepare for their
first Christmas as parents; two eavesdropping passengers realise they
share more in common than they had thought; a couple celebrate their
twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, wondering if it's all a sham; and
Isobel from Isobel's Wedding encounters an unexpected reunion in a
luxurious Caribbean getaway.
A touching and heart-warming
selection of stories taken from Sheila O'Flanagan's bestselling
collections Destinations, Connections and A Season to Remember,
available together exclusively in this digital-only edition.
I've always liked the word 'eclectic' but never found reason to use it -
until now. Full Circle comprises a collection of stories that can best
be described as eclectic. While the common theme revolves around
relationships, the characters range from a comatose patient in story
one right through to an eerie scarecrow in the last story . In between
you'll find tales of people dealing with the challenges life holds for
all of us.
This collection of short stories, Full Circle and Other Stories, from Mary O'Sullivan has been on my Kindle since last summer but my Irish Fiction month has finally given me the perfect excuse to make the time to read them. And with it is being a selection of short stories it meant that I could read a story or two whenever I had five minutes to spare.
The stories cover an interesting mix of topics exploring family relationships, a comatose patient, serial killers although death seemed to feature quite highly in most of them!
On Roone, an island off the west coast of Ireland, stands a stone
cottage by the edge of the sea. The locals are convinced that it brings
luck to those who live there and Nell, its current owner, is certain
there's something to it. After all, it drew her back to the island from
Dublin and it brought her Tim, her fiancé, whom she's set to marry in a
few short months.
So when Nell decides to rent out the cottage
during the summer to raise money for her wedding, deep down she hopes
that it will work its magic and attract the right tenants to her home.
But
as the summer unfolds and Nell's carefully-laid plans for her wedding
start to go awry, she begins to question her decision to let out her
beloved cottage.
As the arrival of each of the tenants brings
about unexpected change to the lives of the islanders, Nell is forced to
face some home truths about herself and answer one increasingly burning
question . . .
One thing's for sure, it's a summer on the island that nobody will ever forget.
St Enda's Terrace, nestled in the heart of Dublin city, is like any
other closeknit community - there's the newly-weds planning on having a
baby; the single mother raising her children on her own; the upwardly
mobile couple who bought in the height of the boom, and the long-timers
to whom everyone goes for advice.
But behind every closed door, there
are secrets. And when the street syndicate wins the national lottery,
but the ticket is nowhere to be found, these neighbours are about to
discover just how much has been kept hidden...
As friendships and
relationships are put to the test in the search for the missing ticket,
the residents of St Enda's learn that, while good times might come and
go, good friends are forever.
When Lily Flynn's memory starts to fade, she dusts off the
long-forgotten diary she'd kept when she was fifteen and slowly begins
to fill in the details of her life.
Five years later, when Lily is
admitted to Lakelands Nursing Home, a helper finds the diary and a
letter addressed to Lily's daughter Deirdre with instructions that the
diary be read aloud to her.
Lily's last wish is that Deirdre learn
the truth about her birth so that she might be able to understand her
mother's choices all those years ago.
And there begins a journey of
three women - Lily, a young woman dreaming of the day she can escape to
the city; her daughter Deirdre who has always felt responsible for the
life her mother never had; and Zoe, the young helper who reads the diary
to Deirdre.
As each woman steps back in time, they realise that
while life might turn on a single moment, what happens afterward is up
to them.
Romy Fitzgerald always
planned to go the conventional route: boyfriend, marriage, children.
Motherhood via cupboard sex at a costume party with a stranger dressed
as Darth Vader didn't feature on her to-do list. But when she gives
birth to her son Luke nine months later, he turns out to be the best
thing that ever happened to her. As Luke gets older however, Romy knows
that at some point she's going to have to tell him about his father.
Trouble is, she never found out 'Darth's' real name. But when an old
flame arrives back in her life, the plot thickens.
Kit Masterson
was always 'the one who got away' and now he's back from New York and
seems intent on playing happy families with Romy and Luke. But Kit has
his own secrets to hide ...As Romy begins to wonder if she'll ever find
her mystery man from the party, she learns that in real life secrets
rarely stay hidden, especially when it comes to love. But will Romy find
her dark knight or will she be left to raise Luke (Han) solo?
Christmas at Huntersbrook House has always been a family tradition - log
fires, long walks through the snowy fields and evenings spent in the
local pub. And this year the three grown-up Craig children are looking
forward to the holidays more than ever. Pippa to escape her partying
lifestyle and mounting debts in Dublin; Joey the demands of his gorgeous
girlfriend who seems intent on coming between him and his family; and
Lainey to forget about her controlling ex and his recent engagement to
another woman.
But with the family livery yard in financial trouble,
this Christmas could be the Craig family's last at Huntersbrook as they
face the prospect of selling the ancestral house.
As the holiday
season gets underway, the family need to come up with a way to save
their home, and face the problems they've been running away from in
Dublin. And what better way to figure things out than around the fire at
Huntersbrook House.
