Forty-year-old Tanya Baker dreams of starting a new life and making friends when she moves to a block of flats by the River Thames with her thirteen-year-old daughter, Hattie.
But as Tanya and Hattie knock on neighbours’ doors in search of a tin opener, it’s clear that the residents of Number One Quayside like to keep to themselves. Everyone, that is, except their next-door neighbours, Italian chef Giacomo Dalamo, and his thirteen-year-old daughter, Frankie.
Between a delicious dish of lasagne (Giacomo’s) and a burnt salad (Tanya’s), they hatch a plan to set a library of things in their building, so that residents can borrow rarely-used items, from DIY tools to sports equipment and party supplies.
First, though, Tanya and Giacomo must win over their neighbours, persuade the building’s management company, source library stock by kayaking down the Thames, and deal with plumbing disasters, all the while trying to protect their bruised hearts from falling for each other.
As all the residents at Quayside pull together to make the library happen, dreams are fulfilled, a community is born and love blossoms again.
Divided into thirty-one short self-contained chapters, this popular series from The People’s Friend includes one brand-new story never published before.

Available as ebook, paperback and Large Print paperback
When Alice Baker discovers that she’s been adopted, she knows she won’t have peace until she’s found her Italian birth mother. But all she has is a letter written twenty-five years ago and an old address.
Jaded about love and unable to forgive his ex-fiancée and his brother, Paolo Rondino is struggling to find inspiration for a sculpture that will make or break his career. Hoping that a trip home will help him find his muse again, he decides to return to Italy, even if this means confronting the two people who betrayed him.
Alice and Paolo strike a deal: he will help her find her birth mother and she will pretend to be his girlfriend to please his mother. It looks like the perfect exchange, until real feelings start to grow…
This novella is part of a series but can be read on its own.

Available as ebook, paperback and Large Print paperback
Camillo runs a popular café on Altavicia’s main square. Giada runs an equally popular café across the square. They have both entered Altavicia’s Best Café competition.
Scarred by his father’s death, Camillo’s greatest wish is to escape the Calabrian seaside village and return to his beloved London, where his family was last together and happy. Abandoned by her parents, Giada’s greatest wish is to earn her nonna’s love. The competition trophy is the ticket to both their dreams, but only one can win.

As Camillo discovers that happiness doesn’t come from a location and Giada that love isn’t earned, can enemies become friends, and maybe more?

This novella is part of a series but can be read on its own.

Available as ebook, paperback and Large Print paperback