Sarah Webb

In the Irish village of Burnaby, life is about to change for three very different women. Molly Harper is the manager of Ireland's only dedicated romance bookshop - 'Happily Ever After'. She can't stand Milo Jones, the super-smooth new owner but he do es have a rather attractive son, Sam. When Milo decides he wants to change the bookshop into a highbrow literary one, Molly, with the help of her friends, must fight back if she wants to save the store. Her best friend, Paige Brady, local County Coun cillor and member of the popular 'Happily Ever After Book Club' has problems of her own. She has just launched a general election campaign and is astonished when another woman, Annette Higgins, starts to attack her in a very personal way, resorting t o all kinds of dirty tricks to knock her opponent out of the running. But Paige is determined to stay in the race. Can you judge a man by the shoes they wear? Kate Bowan, another Book Club afficionado, and Molly's housemate thinks so. Shop assistant in the trendy Burnaby designer shoe shop, 'Baroque' by day, she runs the popular dummy dating service 'Test-Crash Dates' by night. But one particular client is proving to be more than a handful.

When Meg returns to Dublin after three years trailing Simon around the globe with their toddler, Lily, and Dan, her 11 year old son from a previous relationship in tow, she realises that all her friends have moved on. And now she only has her kooky family, her sex-obsessed sister, Hattie, and Dan’s flaky but dangerously gorgeous father, Sid, to rely on for help and support. Her new neighbour, Tina is in the same boat. Tina’s a work widow - her workaholic husband, Oliver, works in London from Monday to Friday, leaving Tina with only her perma-stressed sister, Gerry, for company during the week. Meg is worried - without Simon’s job to define her, she doesn’t know who she is anymore. But just when she finds a new job and starts to get back on her feet, Simon throws her another curve ball. And Meg finds that having a man around all the time isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And that sometimes living apart is easier than living together. Because when the boys are away... the girls can play!

When Amy’s seventeen-year-old Aunt Clover lands a dream job giving advice for teen mag The Goss Amy quickly realizes that this is no ordinary column. Clover – being Clover – doesn’t just want to answer her readers’ letters, she wants to solve their problems … personally. From stamping out malicious rumours to handling first kisses and creating the perfect Bebo page, the pair bring happiness to many unhappy girls. But when Amy falls for the cute boy in her art class, she finds she’s in need of a little help of her own…

Join The Shoestring Club When the love of her life, Ed, announces his surprise engagement to her best friend, Julia Schuster is distraught but determined not to let them see how much she's hurting. She spies a remarkable dress in Shoestring, her sister's designer second-hand shop, and knows she'll only be able to stagger through the wedding day, showing everyone how over Ed she is, if her body is wrapped in its soft silk chiffon. Unfortunately it costs mega bucks and she's barely hanging on to her job as it is. Arietty Pilgrim can't and won't attend her fiercely competitive school reunion unless she can arrive wearing exactly the same dress. But working as an elephant keeper in Dublin Zoo does not a millionaire make. But fate has a funny way of bringing people together. Just as Julia starts to flounder amidst family troubles, problem drinking and a broken heart, she meets Arietty and the two of them set up The Shoestring Club -- time-sharing one extraordinary dress and beginning a life-altering friendship.

A collection of short stories from a stellar line-up of Irish authors and illustrators, edited by bestselling author Sarah Webb. The anthology is completed by a final winter-themed tale from the winner of HarperCollins' competition for young writers, which will be illustrated by Irish Children's Laureate, Niamh Sharkey. 12 wintry tales of wonder, from the funny to the ghostly, from the heartfelt to the action-packed - there is something here for everyone to love...Written by some of the most outstanding talents in children's fiction today, including Eoin Colfer, Roddy Doyle, Derek Landy and John Boyne, and with stunning illustrations from the likes of PJ Lynch, Chris Haughton and Niamh Sharkey, to name but a few. This is a gorgeous hardback that no family bookshelf should be without. All profits go to Fighting Words - the Irish Story Centre in support of Creative Writing for Children and Adults. Fighting Words was inspired by Dave Eggers' 826 Valencia project in the USA, as have been creative writing centres all over the world since then, including Milan, Stockholm, London, Barcelona and Sydney. All of these creative writing centres are informally linked together - they communicate regularly, sharing ideas and experience.