Life's too short to frost a cupcake - Jane Elizabeth Varley

It should have been a normal Monday, just like any other. But if it had been, Alice would not now be standing at the airport, thinking her boyfriend was about to propose, when all he had in mind was a spreadsheet for shared expenses...

Alice has a steady job at Carmichael Music, a reliable boyfriend, a nice flat and a cleaning habit she can't just kick. But everything changes one Monday morning. Her kindly boss isn't there, but sends a mysterious text advising her to watch her back. And a new boss has arrived from the American head office: the extremely scary Phoebe Carmichael...

Alice is sure she is about to be fired in a "streamlining" exercise - instead she's offered a dream job in America. Her brief: to persuade the once massively successful, now reclusive, recovering alcoholic singer songwriter Wyatt Brown to record a new album.

So Alice is off to New York - only New York turns out to be Ohio. And when Alice finally reaches Wyatt's ranch, she mistakes the music legend for a hired hand...

When Wyatt makes it clear he has no intention of making a new album, all Alice wants to do is get the first flight out of Ohio. She certainly isn't going to stay; she isn't going to get involved in the Dairy Prize at the Ohio State Show; and she definitely won't be entering a competition for Best Cupcake Froster in Town...