Alice Woodstock has been running away.
Well, not literally. She spends most of her time glued to her desk, writing about grommets and model aeroplanes. No, Alice is avoiding the real world because there's something - someone - in her past that she's desperate to forget. So when she's commissioned to write about life in stately home Eversley Hall, she jumps at the chance to escape into Regency England, even if it does mean swapping her comfy T-shirt for an itchy corset. Perhaps she'll meet her own Mr Darcy ...

But when her past resurfaces in the shape of Leo Allingham, Alice is brought down to earth with a bump. Reckless, unpredictable Leo reminds Alice of the painful price of following her heart. And the new Alice doesn't live dangerously.

Or does she?

A gorgeously warm, funny and heartbreaking story about facing up to your past and finding out what - and who - you really want...Alice Woodstock has her life under control. She's successful and she's happy - as long as she continues to ignore the hurt from her past. But when said past walks back into her life in the shape of Leo - the man who broke her heart - Alice is desperate for an escape route.
She finds the perfect thing - a new job as a tour guide in a Regency stately home. But as she immerses herself in acting out the stories of the house, Alice begins to see parallels with her own life, forcing her to confront her feelings about what she wants and, finally, live in the real world.

Julie Cohen studied at Brown University, earning a summa cum laude degree with honours in English. She moved to the UK to pursue a postgraduate degree in English Literature at the University of Reading and this was followed by a career teaching English at secondary level. She now writes full time and lives with her husband, a guitar tech for rock bands, and their son in Berkshire.

Julie Cohen: Julie Cohen studierte Englisch an der Brown University in Rhode Island, USA. 1992 zog sie für ein Literatur-Aufbaustudium nach England und begann dort als Lehrerin zu arbeiten. Mittlerweile leitet sie Schreib-Workshops in England und den USA und widmet sich ansonsten voll und ganz dem Schreiben. Die Autorin lebt mit ihrem Mann und ihrem kleinen Sohn in Berkshire.