Diamonds and daisies - Bernadette Strachan

Novelist Sunny Parkinson might write scorching romances, but her own life is decidedly lacking in passion.

A knicker-snatcher is at large in her block of flats. Her best friend's marriage is crumbling over a luncheon meat scandal. She lives with a spherical couch potato and a workaholic virgin. And an Irish nun has just moved in to their spare room.

But one night at the launderette she meets Count Fabio Carelli - a man so traffic-stoppingly sexy he could have stepped straight from the pages of her latest novel...

Candlelit dinners, luxury spa dates and weekends in Paris are a far cry from the weekly pint and pork scratchings with her ex-turned-TV-gardener. Sunny is understandably dazzled.

But is this the happy ending she's always craved or is it too good to be true?