THE TEMPTATION OF GRACIE

(S&S £14.99) DeSPITe one of the characters being a tarty northerner called Wendy who drinks too much and snores, I enjoyed this novel very much . . . Gracie, a put-upon widow in Devon, leaves boring village life for a week at a cookery school in a Tuscan castello.

Guilt prompts her career- obsessed daughter, Carina, to go too, bringing along her own daughter anastasia, who’s hardly ever seen Gracie.

Granny and granddaughter bond instantly, however, and Gracie starts to reveal the real reason she has come to the Castello.

She has a past life as an Italy-based master criminal, not to mention a long-lost lover in the area.

Full of lovely, positive characters and dreamy descriptions, this also has a fun satirical streak. Flappy Scott-Booth, queen of Gracie’s Devon village, is a peach of a character whom I hope to meet again. as well as Wendy, obviously.