Forty Things To Do Before You're Forty
‘A lovely feel-good read.’ Jill Loves To ReadA time for new beginnings…Professional baker Annie Richards is used to spending her days covered in flour, single-handedly raising her five-year-old daughter, Sophie. She certainly doesn’t have time for any men in her life.But there’s something about handsome writer Jake O’Donnell’s twinkling dark eyes that are proving quite distracting! And when she’s in the middle of icing her most decadent wedding cake yet, it’s rather difficult to stop herself daydreaming about saying ‘I do’ to her very own happy ever after…Perfect for fans of Trisha Ashley, Cathy Bramley and Claire Sandy.Praise for Alice Ross:‘A perfect read for sitting in your garden with your glass of Pimms!’ The Writing Garnet‘A lovely feel-good read.’ Jill Loves to Read‘Perfect with a bowl of strawberries and cream in the garden on a nice summers day.’ Brizzlelass Books‘Fantastic!’ Whispering Stories Book Blog‘A lovely summer read.’ Book Lover Worm Blog
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The truth is that Annie Richards is just too busy to fall in love!
Running a successful cake-making business, acting as caretaker to a grand country house, not to mention single-handedly raising her five-year-old daughter, is more than enough to keep Annieâs - âflour-dusted â hands full! So can someone please remind her why she agreed to train for a marathon as a âForty things to do before youâre fortyâ pact with her so-called best friend?!
With every hour of the day already taken up, the arrival of crime writer Jake OâDonnell at Buttersley shouldnât really have any impact on Annieâs life at all. Thereâs definitely no time in her carefully scheduled day for dreaming about drop-dead gorgeous authors. Is there?
But between whipping up batches of her signature limoncello cupcakes, Annie realises that Jake, and his twinkling dark eyes, canât just be ticked off her mental to-do list as easily as she thought. Especially when it seems that no. 40 on her list could be creating a truly decadent wedding cake â for her very own weddingâ¦
Forty Things To Do Before Youâre Forty
Alice Ross
HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2014
Copyright © Alice Ross 2014
Alice Ross asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
E-book Edition © May 2014 ISBN: 9781472095268
Version date: 2018-09-19
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Extract
ALICE ROSS
lives in north-east England.
Jake OâDonnell didnât swear. Normally. Today, however, he made an exception. Stopping his jeep at the gate of the third field of cows the grating voice on the sat nav directed him to, he uttered a couple of expletives before stabbing at the button and switching it off. He could do a better job without it, despite not having a clue where he was, or being able to rely on that old-fashioned time-served method of following a map: his misjudged faith in modern technology meant he hadnât brought one. Oh well, he couldnât be any more lost so he might as well carry on driving until he stumbled upon his destination of Buttersley, or met someone who could point him in the right direction. Still, there was one consolation he concluded, as a waft of warm June air scented with manure drifted through the open window: he was - however inadvertently â discovering the delights of the Yorkshire countryside and, with the sun beating down from the dazzling cloudless sky, he couldnât have chosen a better day for it.
Annie Richardsâs calves ached. And she had a stitch. And she could feel a blister bubbling on her left foot. But she was determined not to stop running. If she could just make it back to Buttersley, she would have completed five miles - the longest distance she had ever run in her entire life. Visualisation! That was what the running magazines recommended. She needed to visualise herself completing the Buttersley 10k race in a few weeksâ time. Oh yes. She could imagine it now: the deafening roar of the huge, flag-waving crowd spurring her on â although, given how small Buttersley was, it would more likely be a low-key rumble from a handful of pensioners flapping their bus passes. Still, that rumble would, hopefully, make all the hours of training, the blisters and the aching muscles worthwhile. If it didnât, Annie knew exactly who to blame: her best friend Portia Pinkington-Smythe.
Were it not for Portia, Annie would never have contemplated running anything other than the bath. She often wondered why she couldnât have a normal female best friend instead of a gorgeous war correspondent, who also happened to be a member of the super-rich aristocratic Pinkington-Smythe family. But, for all their differences, the two of them had forged a bond which had lasted three decades â ever since their first day at boarding school. Had it not been for the nominal fees Annieâs motherâs head teacher post entitled her to, it was likely the two girlsâ worlds would never have coincided. But Annie was immensely grateful they had. Particularly over the last few years. Indeed, without Portia she had no idea how she would have coped. The girl had proved a lifesaver, although, given that this running business had been her suggestion, she might well be a life-ender if Annie dropped down dead with a heart attack.
