This is a story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heart-broken and believing that "Love is a terrible thing that makes you suffer". When a chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, she dreams of finding fame and fortune yet ends up working as a prostitute.
It's a plum assignment for photojournalist Joanna James: a ride on the Orient-Express with a stop in Venice for five days at the exclusive Cipriani Hotel - all expenses paid. The trip starts out more as an inconvenience than an exciting adventure - especially when a stop in London renews her friendship with two very different lovers. But then she boards the train and enters its romantic world, where strangers become friends, where confidences are shared, and where love is lost... and found.
Brought together by their mutual interest in art, Sasha, a widowed art gallery owner with grown children, and Liam, a successful artist nine years her junior, find new meaning in their lives through their relationship with each other.
A beautiful and gutsy lawyer, Jennie is on the brink of marriage and is trying the most important case of her career. Then a shattering secret from her past threatens to destroy her world.
When Dr Oliver Fforde unexpectedly arrived at Amabel's guest house during a winter storm, he made a lasting impression. Amabel didn't expect to see him again, so it was strange how Oliver seemed to reappear every time Amabel was in a spot of bother.
Rejected in love, the incredibly rich (but appropriately modest) George Bellew walks into a small English village populated with a cast of most interesting people, from the ramrod straight old Sergeant who can't seem to get beyond talking of peaches with the apple of his eye, to the smarmy Mr. Cassilis who seems to think that the beautiful Anthea (and her farm at Dapplemere) can be had for the asking - if only he asks often enough. And then there is Anthea -- a lovely woman, caring for those around her - though full of cares herself - and too proud to accept help from anyone.
When she discovers that her husband, James, married her only for her dowry, Theodora Saxby, known by the town as the Ugly Duchess, is devastated until James launches a campaign to prove that he really loves her.
