The Shameful Diaries of Maggie Lane

*Exceptions: Break-ups, weight gain, job losses, crummy auditions, great auditions where you don't get a call back, high Visa bills, cavities, the trauma of using automated telephone menus, surprise visits from Mom, no phone calls from CLOML (Current Love of My Life), and any other unforeseen tragic bouts of stress. Amen.

Meet Melanie Zeitgar. Aspiring actress-turned-bored temp. The Queen of Divine Quips. And a total kleptomaniac. For Mel, stealing is a lot like love: she knows the right thing when she sees it. Unfortunately, she sees it everywhere: Pretty soaps. Socks. Lipstick. Cashmere sweaters. Tampons. Condoms. Candy bars. Perfume. Make-up. The occasional vibrator. Hey, can she help it that she has a special, and unfortunately, very illegal, talent? She doesn't mean to take things. Just like she doesn't mean to tell people she's a struggling clock artist. Or continue eating chocolate. Or wait for a call from Ray, the Beautiful Musician Who Must Have Been in a Horrible Accident that Broke His Dialing Fingers.

Melanie's biggest rule--in life, love, and shoplifting--is this: Don't Get Caught. But sometimes, even the best klepto has an off day. Now, with every part of her life veering zanily out of control, Melanie's met a guy whose heart is hers for the taking. . .if she's brave enough to pay the price. . .

Sometimes Reality Bites…

Lauren Campbell thought she knew where she was going. After dropping her son off at college, she'd have four years to live out her dreams and plan the future. But she'd been so living in denial, spending her days baking cookies, cleaning the house and going to PTA meetings, that she missed the fine print on her divorce. Now she's about to go from empty nest to no nest because her ex's support has ended!

From dressing as a milkmaid at the local grocery to working on window displays, Lauren struggles to make lemonade out of lemons. But a strange thing happens along the way. This "temporary" life starts looking more appealing than the life she's built in her fantasies….

Life, love and unlikely legacies.

Willow runs into Luke, the university lust-of-her-life, ten years on and this time around he’s interested––she’s lost twenty pounds and found fashion. But their meeting turns out to be no accident. What is Luke really after, Willow or her new inheritance?

Her best mate Cal is gorgeous and…well… gay. Then reveals himself to be more than a mild, unassuming computer geek and she is no longer sure exactly who is telling the truth or who to trust.

Is anyone in her life what they seem to be?

Add to the romantic confusion, twelve pairs of rubber boots, two elderly spaniels, a pregnant sister and the unexpected contents of a matchbox and you get a funny, touching story of a woman in search of revenge and getting what she needs, rather than what she thinks she wants.