Catherine Alliott
The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton

Evie Hamilton appears to lead a charmed life as the wife of an Oxford don and mother of model daughter Anna. But a letter arrives one day that challenges the very foundations on which her life is built, and leaves her and husband Antony completely floored. As Evie tries her best to dust herself off and adjust to this bolt from the blue, she finds herself experiencing a more profound crisis of confidence, questioning her role within her marriage, family and life in general. Just who is Evie Hamilton, and has she the strength of mind to overcome this hurdle and become the woman she really wants to be?

Elizabeth Aston
The Second Mrs Darcy

Romance and scandal abound in this warm and witty tale of the young widow Octavia Darcy, whose attempts to secure her fortune and clear her name lead her through all manner of difficulties. 'I am a woman of independent means, definitely in possession of a good fortune, but I am not in the least in want of a husband!' So declares Octavia Darcy. She hasn't always been in this happy position. Raised as a poor relation, despised by her half-sisters, sent to India to be married off, only to have her brief happiness as the second wife of Captain Darcy dashed by his early death - life has been hard. But an unexpected legacy leaves her well off and for the first time ever she can decide her own fate.

From fat girl to thin, from red hair to mud brown, from London to Toronto, from Polish count to radical husband, from writer of romances to distinguished poet - Joan Foster is utterly confused by her life of multiple identiities. She decides to escape to an Italain hill town to take stock of her life. But first, she must organise her own death .

• Margaret Atwood is Canada's most eminent novelist and poet and has published more than thirty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her novel The Blind Assassin won the Booker Prize in 2000.

'Shrewd, funny, intelligent, honest, ironic' - SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY