Tuscany For Beginners

Oh, the dream of escaping to Italy-and the nightmare of reality. . . .

Belinda Smith has found her very ownTuscanvalley in the sun, having abandoned a dreary cheating husband and an even drearier English town. Running Casa Mia, her own too, too divine bed and breakfast, everything is coming up sunflowers and olive groves for La Contessaof the Valley. Life couldn't be more perfecto

Until, that is, the arrival of Lauren-a beautiful, feisty Wall Street ball-breaker who has the gall to announce her plans to open a new B&B. A place just like Belinda's-only much more glamorous. Even worse, Lauren, whose charmingly calculated smile Belinda recognizes as quite like her own, threatens Belinda's existence as the epicenter of all things ex-patriot in the valley.

Have Belinda's fabulous days of ruling supreme in this corner of the world come to an end? Will the carnivorous Lauren consume Belinda's dreams al fresco? Will Lauren's gorgeous son Kyle steal Belinda's lovely, overworked daughter away from home and hearth (who will do the cleaning, for God's sake?). War has come to lovely Tuscany-let the fur and focaccia fly

Imogen Edwards-Jones is the author of Shagpile, My Canape Hell, Hotel Babylon, and The Wendy House. She has edited the anthologies Big Night Out and Girls’ Night Out/Boys’ Night In. She lives in England.