Perfume blogger Polly is in crisis. Will her husband's absence break her ... or make her? A novel of perfumes, exploring life, love, loss and forgiveness ... Maggie Alderson's new bestseller. On New Year's Eve, Polly Mackay is contemplating her life. She had been happily married with two grown-up children, a thriving business as a perfume blogger, and a glamorous, ageing, ex-model mother who keeps things ... interesting. But when her husband announced that he needed time away from her and promptly vanished, everything she took for granted was thrown into disarray. As Polly grapples with David's disappearance she clings to a few new friends to keep her going. Shirlee, the loud-mouthed yoga student; Guy, the mysterious, infuriating and hugely talented perfumer; and Edward, an old friend from university who reappears in Polly's life. But while she distracts herself with the heady world of luxury perfume, she can't keep reality at bay forever, and eventually she is forced to confront...

Evangeline the toy elephant lies under the bed all day, waiting and waiting for something to happen.If only she could be useful somewhere...Will her wish be granted?

Home is where the heart is - but what happens to your heart when the people you love are scattered around the world? Hannah and Matt are very happy together, living in London's cool East End with their two young children. Hannah has a job she loves as a beauty editor and Matt is always just about to break through as a songwriter. But then events start to pull them apart, with Hannah certain they'd be much better off down in the English countryside with her family - and Matt's mum needing them with her, back in Sydney, 17 000 kilometres away. Hannah's mother, Marguerite, mends broken china, but can she can repair her damaged marriage? And Matt's vivacious young cousin, Ali, feels lost, looking for love in a strange city. All of them have unsettling secrets and while some are better shared, others might be best left unspoken - the problem is knowing which are which. In this story of three women's search for a place to call home, Maggie Alderson crosses continents...

'Do you always sleep in separate beds?'A question from her outspoken friend Kiki shocks Amelia Bradlow into taking stock of her 'perfect' life. She might have the adoring husband, the flat in Mayfair and the weekend cottage, but what about the things that really matter? Like the unmentionable matter of the baby they haven't had . . .Just when she is most confused, up pops gorgeous Joseph Renwick -- the first boy she ever kissed -- back in town and dangerously single.Struggling to put thoughts of him aside, Amelia makes some big changes. A reinvigorated career and a style makeover turn her into a new woman -- but husband Ed preferred the old one.So with her internal clock ticking ever louder, Amelia has to decide whether to stay in her nearly happy marriage, or take a gamble on going solo. Is it better to break your own heart than to settle for second best?

When a heartsick London woman moves Down Under to start over, she finds that Sydney is populated with men who look all too familiar-making it far too easy for her to repeat the mistakes of her past.

Jess is having her Golden Moment — she's successful, attractive and confident. When the drop-dead gorgeous Adam walks in to her cafe, it's love at first sight, but her friend Trina has been reading The Rules and warns her to play it cool. Will her ice queen act create the air of mystique and intrigue she's hoping for, or drive him away? In this short story, Maggie Alderson explores the rituals — and pitfalls — of modern dating.

Stella Fain has a rule for men she likes: make them wait ... But the gorgeous Jay proves an exception to the rule when he bowls Stella off her Prada wedges at a press junket on the Cote d'Azur. He might seem to have everything going for him, but Stella is about to realize that there's only thing worse than having a boyfriend with no money ... and that's having one with too much. Jetset lifestyles can be fabulous, but Stella's career as a journalist isn't something she wants to jeopardize for any man, no matter how filthy rich or gorgeous. And then there's her father - a six-times-married prime slice of Alpha Male with a grudge against inherited wealth ... and Jay. There's no denying money makes the world go round and diamonds are a girl's best friend, but they don't make the path to love any easier to tread. With or without the Prada wedges.

Emily Pointer would rather jog naked through Harvey Nichols' beauty hall than be seen with last season's handbag.A fashion stylist with Chic magazine, Emily is a natural blonde, a effortless size 10, travels the world for work and gets 30% discount at Prada. As far as she's concerned, life is perfect.So surely a night of wild sex with a hunky Australian photographer during the fashion show season in Milan will be just another fabulous experience to add to the package? Instead, Emily starts to discover that life can be messy- and the designer clothes in your closet can be squeezed out by the skeletons lurking in there too.From the bestselling author of Pants on Fire and a former magazine editor herself, comes the delicious tale of a woman who was kidding herself that another Birkin bag was all she needed to achieve fulfilment.

Of all the nightmare options that passed through Antonia Heaveringham's head when her husband Hugo uttered the words, 'I've got something to tell you . . .', a coming out speech never figured. Suddenly alone in their adopted home of Sydney, with no friends save for her six-year-old son Tom and a pair of jewelled Jimmy Choo mules, Antonia soon finds that an attractive single woman is not nearly so welcome on the champagne social scene as the wife of a glamorous English aristocrat. It is only the arrival of Hugo's outrageous lavender-haired Uncle Percy that lifts her out of her depression – and propels her into the gym to combat the effects of some serious comfort eating. There she meets the mysterious James, who leads her into a shadowy world of criminals, corruption and high-stakes property deals. But what starts out as a lark leads her into a situation where keeping a secret becomes a matter of life, death – and love.