The Love Trilogy. Sophie Pembroke

      

       It’s only a summer fling…

      Boutique jewellery designer Lily Thomas knows hating the boring ring her fiancé gave her isn’t a good enough reason to end a seven-year relationship. Especially when settling down with Edward is the only thing she’s ever done right in the eyes of her mother–and her hometown. Besides, everyone else seems to be getting married: Lily’s best friend Cora, her cousin, her friends from work. So why not Lily?

      But when Alex Harper, Lily’s high school crush, moves back to Felinfach, he shows her exactly why. She can’t pretend to be someone she’s not just to keep her fiancé happy. It’s a terrible way to start a marriage, and a terrible way to live. Lily calls off her engagement, but she still needs a date to all the weddings crowding her summer calendar. Conveniently, Alex has a few weddings to attend as well.

      They agree to be wedding buddies, and soon the whole town is talking about them. If everyone’s going to talk anyway, why shouldn’t Lily and Alex make the most of it? As long as they both know it’s only a summer fling…

      CONTENT WARNING: May induce desire for pretty jewellery…

       Also available from Sophie Pembroke

       Room for Love

       An A to Z of Love

       Summer of Love

      Sophie Pembroke

       Copyright

      HQ

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

      First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2014

      Copyright © Sophie Pembroke 2014

      Sophie Pembroke asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      E-book Edition © June 2014 ISBN: 9781472096456

      Version date: 2018-07-23

       SOPHIE PEMBROKE

      has been dreaming, reading and writing romance ever since she read her first Mills and Boon as part of her English Literature degree at Lancaster University, so getting to write romances for a living really is a dream come true!

      Sophie lives in a little Hertfordshire market town with her scientist husband and her incredibly imaginative five-year-old daughter. She writes stories about friends, family and falling in love, usually while drinking too much tea and eating homemade cakes. Or, when things are looking very bad for her heroes and heroines, white wine and dark chocolate.

      She keeps a blog at www.SophiePembroke.com, which should be about romance and writing, but is usually about cake and castles instead.

       Contents

       Cover

       Blurb

      Book List

       Title Page

      Copyright

       Author Bio

       Dedication

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       Chapter Twelve

       Chapter Thirteen

       Chapter Fourteen

       Chapter Fifteen

       Chapter Sixteen

       Chapter Seventeen

       Chapter Eighteen

       Endpages

       About the Publisher

      For Ann-Marie

       Chapter One

      ‘This could have been your party, you know.’ Lily’s mother, Evelyn, ran a critical eye over the crowd of guests filling Cora’s parents’ house with polite chitchat and discussions about wedding favours. The terrace doors were flung open to let in the late spring sunshine, the party spilling out onto the patio, breathing in the sickly sweet smells of Mrs Harper’s perfectly landscaped flower gardens.

      Lily, for her part, planned on staying as close to the drinks table as she could manage.

      ‘Fond though they are of me, I don’t think the Harpers would necessarily throw me an engagement party in their house.’ Lily repressed a shudder at the thought. An engagement party came just below root canal surgery on her list of things she wanted. A whole room of people telling her how happy they were she was finally settling down, for her mother’s sake. And then indulging in a recital of every time Lily had screwed up as a teenager. Not fun. No, her engagement and wedding would be about Lily and Edward – no one else. Small, intimate and meaningful, that was what she wanted. ‘Besides, they already have their own daughter’s engagement and wedding to deal with.’

      Across the room, Lily’s best friend Cora sparkled with excitement, rivalling even the sizable rock on her left hand. At this distance, Lily couldn’t make out the delicate white gold band, stamped with tiny stars, or the princess-cut diamond at its centre, but she didn’t need to. She knew exactly what they looked like. That ring marked Lily’s best work to date, and her best friend would wear it for the rest of her life. Perfect.

      Lily’s eyes dropped to her own ring, the boring round solitaire on yellow gold. It was