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Dorothy Koomson’s latest book The Woman He Loved Before is publishing in paperback this week (you can read my review here!), and to celebrate, we asked Dorothy to write us an author article. We asked her about the genre of chick lit and whether Dorothy thinks her books actually fit into that label, and Dorothy has come up with a cracking piece! It’s certainly made me think about things in a different light regarding women’s and men’s reading habits, let us know your thoughts in the comments when you’ve read Dorothy’s article!

My last two books, The Ice Cream Girls and The Woman He Loved Before have been decidedly different to my previous books in that there has been a strong crime/whodunit element to them. This led to me thinking over how I would classify them and eventually I came up with a shiny new genre, well, sub-genre that I think my books slot into.

Not longer after this revelation, I was asked by Chloe and Leah to write about whether I thought my books were chicklit or not. Perfect! I thought, I can tell people about this brand-spanking new genre. Then I sat down to explain about it and something occurred to me. Something so big, I can’t believe it hasn’t come to mind before.

What I thought was this: Why, in this day and age, are women still having to define, explain and justify their reading choices? And it is women who have to do this.

I’ve read a few thousand books in my time, and all those reads later I’m still having to defend the mere act of picking up a book with a pink cover/a woman’s name in the author slot/something that looks frivolous. As a writer I also have to defend what I write as ‘not all fluff’, and sometimes dealing with ‘hard-hitting issues’. I truly have never heard a man have to justify these things about his choice of reading or writing genre – even if he does read and/or write a trashy detective novel or a shoot ’em up thriller . . . unless of course it’s a woman’s book he’s picked up and then he’s nothing but full of defences: ‘It’s my girlfriend’s/there was nothing else to read on the desert island/I’m married to the author.’

But, more than that, does it matter if a book is all fluff? If you’ve paid for it, borrowed it from a library or even got it from a friend, aren’t you entitled to read it just because you want to? That’s it, no justification, no saying ‘it’s pure fun’, you ‘want to tune out’, you’re ‘only picking it up because it’s an easy holiday read’. If you want to read something, you should be allowed to do so, no further discussion needed.

It’s especially galling when you think that women buy more fiction than men – depending on the research you read, anything between 60 and 80 per cent of fiction books are bought by women. We’re the ones buying the books, shouldn’t we be allowed to read what we want without need for justification?

What unsettles - and quite frankly annoys – me is the fact that a woman can write commercially about make-up, shoes and love or rape, domestic violence and addiction and she’s dismissed as writing ‘women’s fiction’ a man will write a literary tome about what he hates about women, how he loves to brutalise or demean women, and he’s not only hailed a genius, he’s often given an award.

I know which type of book I’d rather read. But then, isn’t that the point? I know what I want to read. And I’m allowed to read it. So, I’m making a stand – and hope lots of other reading women will join me: I’m going to stop trying to convince other people that there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with reading women’s fiction – fluffy or not. I’m going to pick it up, enjoy it and ignore any sneers about its worth.

Oh, what of the new genre idea for my books? They still fall under the umbrella of commercial women’s fiction, but I came up with the sub-genre of ‘Emotional Thriller’. My last two books have the thriller element in them, but the main focus is on the relationships in the book, the effect of the crime on the characters, not on the crime itself.

Relationships are what I like to read about and what I LOVE to write about. I think women have proved that they excel at writing about the emotional side of life, even when there’s a crime involved, so the more of these stories get written by women, the better.

But then, I would say that, wouldn’t I? I’m a woman.

I recently read - and reviewed! - Sasha Wagstaff’s brilliant third novel Heaven Scent. We were then offered the chance to show you which scents Sasha would choose for each of her characters and we’re delighted to have it for you today! You can watch the video, or read the article, or do both! Enjoy!

IF EACH CHARACTER IN ‘HEAVEN SCENT’ WAS A PERFUME / AFTERSHAVE, WHAT WOULD THEY BE AND WHY?

Xavier – Azzarro Pour Homme (‘Fougere’, Woody Fern)
Sexy, glamorous and reminiscent of a jet-set lifestyle…it’s also clean, virile and the epitome of masculine elegance. Dynamic, full of body and utterly delicious.

Cat – Jo Malone’s Lime, Basil and Mandarin (Citrus, Green)
It’s rich, floral and citrusy and it’s very natural and relaxed, with a warm, spicy heart. Overall it’s modern, uplifting and spirited…possessing a beautiful radiance that’s irresistible.

Guy – Coco Chanel’s Pour Monsieur (Masculine Chypre)
It’s classic, warm and sophisticated and it’s typically worn by a man who is focused, confident and refined. Perfect for an elegant, attractive older man.

Ashton – Dunhill London (Oriental Fougere)
Vibrant and contemporary, the rose heart note symbolises ‘Englishness’ and charming warmth. With a hint of mysteriousness, this scent is for the modern gent who is elegantly masculine and inherently British.

Leoni – Miller Harris, Geranium Bourbon (Floral)
Interesting and original, this complex scent was inspired by the smell of an English garden after the rain. Light, young, sophisticated, it’s floral not flowery and it’s intensely feminine and chic.

Angelique – Samsara, Guerlain (Oriental Woody)
With a punchy jasmine and ylang ylang heart note, this fragrance is unapologetic and sophisticated. With a lingering aroma that’s warm, feminine and rather loud, this scent is worn by a sensual, confident female who knows she’s desirable to men.

Delphine – Chanel No19 (Floral )
Crisp, brisk and business-like, No19 is an ‘old school’ floral, with traditional values and a haughty edge. Perceived as cold and scary, this is actually a timeless classic with a good heart.

Max – Jean Paul Gaultier, Le Male (Woody Musk)
Original, controversial and rebellious, this is a masculine yet sensitive scent that suggests youthful attitude with an underlying vulnerability. Not as brash as it appears.

Seraphina – Tommy Girl, Hilfiger (Floral)
Refreshing, energetic and extremely independent, this is an effervescent scent combining freshness with a youthful appeal. It has an innocent but very attractive air.

Today I have the opportunity of sharing something a little fun with Chick Lit Readers! Author Emily Wing Smith’s recent novel Back When You Were Easier to Love revolves around Joy, a girl whose boyfriend Zan just up and left her to live in California. After deciding to track him down with his very attractive, but mildly annoying best friend Noah she learns he might not be what he was cracked up to be. Well, today I am sharing a few of the books Joy would have read while growing up and during this difficult time courtesy of the author, Emily Wing Smith! Take a look…

Junie B. Jones (complete series)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Fiction
Elements of Style by Strunk and White
Love Is a Decision by Dr. Gary Smalley

Thank you so much Emily for this great list of books! I can definitely see where they’d easily fit into Joy’s life, especially when it comes to her and her relationship with Zan.

I’ll be sharing my review of Back When You Were Easier to Love next weekend, so make sure to look out for it!

What’s worse than getting dumped? Not even knowing if you’ve been dumped. Joy got no goodbye, and certainly no explanation when Zan - the love of her life and the only good thing about stifling, backward Haven, Utah - unceremoniously and unexpectedly left for college a year early. Joy needs closure almost as much as she needs Zan, so she heads for California, and Zan, riding shotgun beside Zan’s former-best-friend Noah.

Original and insightful, quirky and crushing, Joy’s story is told in surprising and artfully shifting flashbacks between her life then and now. Exquisite craft and wry, relatable humor signal the arrival of Emily Wing Smith as a breakout talent.

Today we’re very pleased to be hosting the wonderful Victoria Connelly! Her first novel to be released in the US, A Weekend With Mr Darcy, is the first novel in a trilogy about Jane Austen addicts and, if I do say so myself, it’s a wonderful read. Here, Victoria tells us what the differences are between the US edition of the novel and the UK edition! Don’t forget to pick up your copy of A Weekend With Mr Darcy which was released this weekend!

I’m very excited because I’m about to be published in the US for the first time with my novel, A Weekend with Mr Darcy. It’s all happened so quickly too. In 2009, I was signed up for a three-book deal for my trilogy about Jane Austen addicts before I’d even completed the first book! The UK deal came pretty soon after the US one but, interestingly, although my agent pitched it as a trilogy, the UK only made an offer for two books and the third book in the series is likely to be published in the US before it is available in the UK.

It’s been interesting seeing the differences between my UK and US publisher. So far, the US has taken the first two books and pretty much left them as they were published in the UK but I did notice a lot of grammatical changes in the final stage of edits. When I first got the edits, I got quite a surprise - it was a bit like getting an essay back from your teacher at school all covered in red pen. Their attention to detail really impressed me and I’ve never had things like the ‘active voice’ or ‘pronouns’ pointed out to me in my writing before. I have learned so much from my US edits!

Here are some examples of things that have been queried or changed. I’m addicted to ‘qualifiers’ in my work, frequently using words like ‘rather’ as in ‘she had a rather pretty dress’ but my editor calls this ‘unnecessary verbiage’ and deletes them. It rather hurts! My reference to ‘mint humbugs’ was also queried by my US editor, and they didn’t like it when I wrote things like ‘he sighed inwardly’. ‘Inwardly’ was redundant, they told me and was a particular pet hate of theirs.

But the great thing about editing is that the writer can query things too and one word that sneaked into my manuscript after the first US edit was ‘gotten’. I strongly objected to it especially as they had my Oxford doctor of literature using the word! So it was deleted along with all the references to ‘inwardly’ and any ‘mint humbugs’ that were hanging around.

The second book in my Austen trilogy is coming being published in the US in January 2012. I originally called it The Illustrated Darcy but nobody but me seemed to like that so we changed it to Dreaming of Mr Darcy for a while. However, my UK publisher had a change of heart and decided against the Darcy theme and we came up with the new title, The Perfect Hero. But the US wanted to keep the Darcy title and so it’s remained Dreaming of Mr Darcy. It feels funny having two titles for the same book and I only hope it doesn’t confuse my readers.

Another thing that was different between the two editions were my Jane Austen references. My UK editor cut a lot of these in The Perfect Hero which I felt a bit disappointed about but I left them all in for the US version and nothing has been cut. So, if you’re a real Austen fan and don’t mind Austen overload, read the US version!

There was also a huge difference between the UK and US covers. The US covers feel very fresh and modern with crisp photos of the heroines with illustrated locations in the background. In contrast, the UK covers are sweet and romantic with their cartoony illustrations. I love both and I’ll be really interesting to hear what readers think.

Thanks so much Victoria!

Today I have the opportunity of sharing something a little fun with Chick Lit Readers, a Top Ten list of places author Julie Halpern would like to travel to. You may be asking why exactly I’d be sharing this? Well, I’ve recently finished reading her book, Don’t Stop Now, and it centers around a couple of “friends” who take a road trip across the US. I absolutely loved the book and love road trips, so this is perfect! I hope you enjoy the places Julie’s picked and look for my review coming soon! Until then, take it away Julie!

These are places I’d like to go. So I assume I will someday. I do love to travel.

Texas – Strange that I’ve never been to Texas. I foresee a road trip around the entire state.

Hawaii – Everyone talks about it like it’s paradise, and it would help me complete my visit to all 50 states.

Australia – I actually lived in and traveled around Australia, but I think about it all the time. I would love to bring my family with me and live there again.

Norway – I took Norwegian in college, so I feel like I have to go there. Why else learn Norwegian?

Mexico – So close, yet I have never been. I took four years of Spanish and would love to use it more often than I do.

Spain – More call for my Spanish, but with a European flare.

Finland – Into the Wild Nerd Yonder was published in Finland, so they must get me. Also, they have the International Air Guitar Championship there. Who wouldn’t want to go to Finland?

Egypt – I wonder if the pyramids feel really old or like a movie set. I hope they haven’t fugged it up with advertisements everywhere.

Greece – Looks amazingly beautiful, as seen in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie.

The South Pole – Just to go.

Thank you so much Julie! Seeing as I’ve only been to a couple of places on your list I can definitely see some traveling in my future as well.

I can’t wait to share my review with Chick Lit Reviews readers, so look for it in the coming weeks, it’s definitely the perfect summer vacation read!

“I did it.”

On the first day of Lillian’s summer-before-college, she gets a message on her cell from her sort-of friend, Penny. Not only has Penny faked her own kidnapping, but Lil is the only one who Penny told. She knows that Penny’s home life has been rough, and that her boyfriend may be abusive. Soon, Penny’s family, the local police, and even the FBI are grilling Lil, and she decides to head out to Oregon, where Penny may be hiding. And who better to road-trip across the country with than Lil’s BFF, Josh. But here’s the thing: Lil loves Josh. And Josh doesn’t want to “ruin” their amazing friendship.

Josh has a car and his dad’s credit card. Lil has her last Summer of Nothing to fill. Together, they share a thirst for all things weird the United States has to offer. But there’s something else Lil needs to find: Are she and Josh meant to be together?

Nicola May self-published her first novel Working It Out back in March this year and it came to my attention when I saw that Scott Pack (who works at HarperCollins) said that this novel should be published by a ‘proper’ publisher. So when Nicola contacted us asking if we would like to review it, I jumped at the chance. We’ll be reviewing Working It Out during June and it’s a very enjoyable novel. Today, Nicola tells us how she became a self-published author!

It has taken a lot of blood, sweat and Sauvignon Blanc to get where I am today, and I won’t lie in saying that getting a chick lit book published is easy, because it’s not. You have to be dedicated and allocate time whenever you can. Most importantly, your story has to be compelling.

I actually didn’t start writing until my thirties. I was working in PR at the time, loved a drink and smoked 20 a day and was dared to run a half marathon. I thought it would be quite funny to create a comedy diary of events throughout my tough training. Amazingly, I completed the marathon, but didn’t finish the diary. It did, however, give me the writing bug.

After my stint in PR, I did a lot of contract work in Event Management. Between major contracts I did do the odd temp job. It was when I was in a Portakabin in the middle of a field, with a mad Greek developer who swore and smoked constantly, that the idea struck - for someone to do twelve jobs in twelve months and see if they could find the one of her dreams.

It was actually four years ago that this particular light bulb moment happened; nine years ago that I wrote my first book.

I was lucky enough then to get the attention of a London-based literary agent who had totally believed in both my writing and me. All three of my books did the publishing rounds. The rejection letter pile got higher, even though most of the comments were positive; my writing style was good but the market was hard. I took on board that publishing is a tough business and taking on a debut author is always a risk.

It was when I got a rejection letter from a large publisher saying they hoped it wasn’t a big mistake, turning Working it Out down, that I finally knew the book really was good enough. Another year passed and I parted with my agent. A life-changing personal tragedy flicked my persistence switch again, and encouraged by my copy editor, who has worked with Milly Johnson, Jackie Collins and Emily Barr, to name but a few, I decided to publish myself.

I am so lucky to have a good friend who designed both my cover and my website. And, an excellent local printer who produced a professional-looking finished product.

So by mid-March 2011, I had the first 100 copies of Working it Out in my hands. Now, due to my own marketing push, I have a major UK distributor, a book signing at Windsor Waterstone’s on 14 May and am now on my third, much larger, print run.

Plus, I am already getting reviews beyond my wildest dreams.

Miranda Dickinson: ‘I just wanted to say a massive congratulations on the publication of Working It Out. I was a big fan of your book when it was on Authonomy (the HarperCollins website for new writers), and I loved your writing style and brilliant characters. It now has pride of place on my Kindle as my Bank Holiday treat when I break from editing.’

Waterstones’s Carol Dixon-Smith: ‘Working It Out appears on the surface to be a straightforward romantic comedy, but it is awash with some very unusual, eccentric, and highly entertaining characters, and is filled to the brim with love in all its many and varying forms. Highly entertaining, surprising, hugely funny but very touching, this is the one to take on holiday with you this year. Don’t miss it!’

And from Scott Pack, The Friday Project, an imprint of HarperCollins, this: ‘A self-published chicklit novel that is easily as good as most of the stuff coming out from major publishers. Actually, it is better than some of the books by household names I have read in recent years. Someone needs to sign her up, - and soon.’

Apart from becoming a bestselling author, my other dream is to be able to write the screenplay of Working It Out. I can see it already: Working It Out, a Working Title Film. Mr Curtis, I hope you’re reading this as you would do a much better job.

And finally, I feel very honoured that Leah contacted me, as I feel that self-published authors are not always taken seriously. I am also very excited as I really believe in Working It Out, and just like Ruby, the central character, I think maybe I am about to embark on the job of my dreams…

Thanks so much Nicola & good luck with Working It Out!

For our Royal Wedding Week, we asked for people who were willing to tell us all about their very own perfect weddings. One author who kindly agreed to tell us about her wedding (and what a fab day it sounded like!) was the lovely Victoria Connelly, take it away Victoria!:

Fourteenth-century Bolton Castle in the Yorkshire Dales might not be everyone’s idea of the perfect wedding venue – Mary Queen of Scots was held prisoner there and many of the rooms haven’t even got a roof - but my fiancé and I knew it was the place for us. It sits in the middle of Wensleydale with sweeping views of the National Park, and a tour of the castle showed that the main ceremony would take place in the Great Chamber and we could have the fire lit.

We visited the castle the day before the wedding, making sure the deliveries of chairs, tables and wine had arrived, and it was then that we noticed that there was no electricity in the castle! Our ceremony was to take place late in the afternoon with the reception in the evening. What were we going to do without lights? Would the fire and candles I’d ordered be enough?

I spent the night before the wedding in a lovely B&B in Askrigg – the village made famous by the TV show All Creatures Great and Small – and it was from there that we drove to the castle through the Dales in an ancient Jaguar driven by an ancient driver who’d just had triple bypass surgery. Luckily, we all made it to the castle intact but my uncle followed in his car just in case ours broke down!

I’d helped design my wedding dress which was based on the Tudor portraits I loved so much (this was many years before the famous TV series!) My gown had long trumpet sleeves and a square, jewelled neckline and a double skirt. It was wonderfully heavy and we had to take it slowly climbing the spiral staircase to the Great Chamber!

I had two bridesmaids: my best friend and my new sister-in-law. Both wore pretty burgundy gowns and carried bouquets of white roses. My bouquet was a fountain of white lilies and deep red roses.

My husband was wearing a black nehru jacket with a burgundy cravat and waistcoat. He looked so handsome!

I’ll never forget the scent of the stargazer lilies in front of the fire in the Great Chamber, and the moment when Roy placed my wedding ring on my finger. It has never been taken off since!

We had a lovely lady to play the harp and one of the funniest photos we have is of her manoeuvring the harp up the spiral staircase with the help of the caterer’s son.

Another magical moment was when Roy and I entered the Great Chamber once it had been set for the dinner. The candles on the tables had been lit and the fire glowed brightly. We were so thrilled that the castle didn’t have electricity!

We’d hired a mobile disco which had been set up in another room and we were delighted to discover a bat circling the dance floor!

Last September, we celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. I wish we could have relived our wedding day all over again but one thing is for sure – I shall never forget it!

The lovely Veronica Henry has kindly written us a fabulous short story for our Royal Wedding Week so without further ado, please enjoy the brilliant ‘A Right Royal Do’!

“The table looked perfect. It was groaning with food. Home-made sausage rolls and cheese straws. Crown-shaped biscuits piped with intricate icing and studded with shining sugar jewels. A magnificent Victoria sponge. A bowl of spicy creamy Coronation chicken flanked by potato salad and crisp fresh lettuce. Patriotic, English classics fit for the wedding of a prince and his bride. A right royal do.

Sally stood back and surveyed it proudly. She’d gone to town, and her friends teased her. They didn’t know she was such a Royalist.

‘I’m not,’ she replied, ‘but I’m not going to sit here on my own sobbing into my Cup a Soup. I want a celebration.’

The preparations had taken her mind off things. She’d had to embrace the royal wedding totally, in order to forget that this was supposed to be her day, too. She’d ordered bunting, and Union Jack napkins, and glittery crowns for them all to wear. Decorated her tiny little garden flat with red, white and blue. And tried not to think about the all the things she had ordered for her own wedding, all the things that had been sent back, cancelled, returned.

The planning had taken months. When Sally and Richard booked the date, they hadn’t known that William and Kate were going to choose the same day and they’d giggled with glee when they found out. What a stroke of luck that their wedding day was to be a national holiday and that none of their friends would have to book the day off.

Of course, the minute the Royal Wedding date was announced, Sally knew people would be making comparisons between her dress and Kate’s, but she had always known what she wanted to wear and didn’t let it put her off. A strapless sheath of cream silk, embroidered with a thick band of pearls around the neckline. Her hair up in a simple twist, a single cream rose in the knot, matching the ones in her bouquet.

Simple. Elegant. Her dream come true. It was going to be perfect.

But then a national paper had contacted them. Wanted to follow their plans, as a comparison to Will and Kate. Richard had baulked at the idea, but Sally had pointed out that the money they were offering would more than pay for their honeymoon in the Maldives. So they’d agreed. Week by week, their progress was charted, all the minutiae spilled out for the world to read. Sally didn’t care. ‘It’ll just be our friends and family, on the day,’ she assured Richard. That had been part of the deal. Privacy on the day itself. After all, no-one was going to be interested come 29^th April. All eyes would be on Westminster Abbey, not the registry office in Malvern.

Now, however, her dress was sitting in the designer’s show room, with a discreet ‘For Sale’ sign pinned to it. Someone would buy it. The designer wouldn’t reveal that the previous owner had been jilted, as a potential purchaser might think that was bad luck. She would pass it off as a sample, and Sally would get some of her two thousand pounds back. Six hundred pearls sewn on by hand didn’t come cheap, even if they weren’t real.

.

There were five bridesmaids’ dresses for sale too, in dove grey satin, but the designer didn’t hold out as much hope for finding a buyer. ‘Tricky,’ she’d said ‘finding five bridesmaids exactly the same size.’ Claire, Millie, Amber, Freya and Jess. They were all coming over today to watch. They’d be here any minute.

To be fair, Richard had given her the money to cover any loss. It was the least he could do. Pulling out of a wedding four weeks before was unforgivable. He hadn’t given her a particular reason. He just didn’t feel ready, he said. There was no other woman, he promised her, and Sally had no reason to disbelieve him.

It was, she supposed, better than being left at the altar.

Humiliating, nevertheless. And of course she was devastated, bewildered, wondered what on earth she had done wrong. But her friends had been wonderful. They’d taught her just how important friendship is. She could get through life without Richard as long as she had them by her side. And here they were now – the buzzer of her flat was ringing. She ran to open the door, and they bounded in, in a flurry of hair and perfume and laughter and hugs. She felt warm as she passed them each a strawberry champagne cocktail and turned on her television.

As the BBC commentary began, and they watched the coach begin its journey, Sally felt a lump rise in her throat. It wasn’t self pity. Instead, it was the emotion that even the most stony-hearted would surely feel on this joyous day. She felt happy for the beautiful young girl about to start the next chapter of her life, and silently prayed that she would find the contentment that had eluded her mother-in-law, that she and the Prince would fill the Royal nursery with fat, happy laughing babies and live happily ever after. And she prayed that the marriage would be able to withstand the media pressure. She and Richard had only had a taste of that pressure, and their relationship hadn’t survived.

Claire sidled up to her. She had never designated her so, because to her all her friends were equal, but in Sally’s heart Claire was her chief bridesmaid, the one who really was there for her at all hours of the day and night. The one who had texted her at eleven o’clock the night before to make sure she wasn’t in a drunken, snivelling heap.

‘Are you ok?’ whispered Claire. They had all agreed ‘not to mention the war’. It was bad enough that there were going to be wedding celebrations shoved down the nation’s throat all day long, without rubbing Sally’s nose in it.

‘Yes,’ said Sally, picking up her glass, and Claire gave her a squeeze as they watched the bride walk down the aisle, the most moving part of any wedding ceremony.

One day, Sally thought, my prince will come.

Two hours later, the ceremony over, the dress dissected and swooned over, the six of them sat at Sally’s table, stuffed with champagne and cake, giggling and gossiping, when the buzzer went again. Sally frowned, no idea who it could be. She made her way to the door, slightly woozy from all the sugar and alcohol.

Behind it she found an enormous bunch of cream roses, just like the ones she had chosen for her wedding bouquet. There must have been fifty. And behind them, Richard. She blinked in astonishment.

‘I’m so sorry,’ he said. ‘I know I did the worst thing that a man can do to a girl. But I just couldn’t hack it. It was those bloody journalists, asking if I thought I was doing the right thing. If I thought the 29^th of April was ‘cursed’, because of Diana. If I thought my marriage would last longer than Will and Kate’s. They kept throwing me statistics, about how many marriages end up in divorce. I got cold feet. I panicked. I didn’t want to get married only for it all to end in tears. But I miss you.’

Sally leant against the wall, feeling faint. He smiled at her, his brown eyes totally sincere, the mouth she’d kissed so many times curled up in a smile.

‘You jilted me,’ she said. ‘The whole country knows.’

‘That was the problem!’ Richard shot back. ‘The whole country knew everything. Even what pants I was wearing under my morning suit!’

That was true. Sally had revealed she had bought Richard a pair of Hugo Boss boxer shorts to wear on the day. The journalist running the feature had been delighted.

‘That’s just the sort of detail we need,’ she’d said.

Richard stepped forward, then dropped to his knees.

The thing is,’ he said. ‘I want to marry you. But I want it small. Private. No papers. No publicity. No fuss.’

Five mouths at the table fell open as Sally considered what he was saying.

‘I watched the wedding this morning,’ he went on, impassioned, ‘and I realised that should have been us as well. I love you, Sally. Please marry me.’

She could feel five pairs of eyes on her as she considered her reply. The fact that they were remaining silent, and not one of them had stepped forward to object, said it all.

‘There’s just one condition,’ she said eventually, and pointed behind her. ‘This lot. I want this lot to come. I’m not getting married without them. No way.’

‘Course not,’ he grinned in reply. ‘I’ve always known they were part of the package.’

And he stepped inside, and took her in his arms, dropping the roses to the floor, as a thunderous round of applause broke out, accompanied by party blowers and whistles and whoops of delight.

My prince has come, Sally thought, as she wrapped her arms around his familiar form and squeezed him as tightly as she could.

By Veronica Henry”