Katie Fforde lives in the beautiful Cotswold countryside with her family, and is a true country girl at heart. Each of her books explores a different profession or background and her research has helped her bring these to life. She's been a porter in an auction house, tried her hand at pottery, refurbished furniture, delved behind the scenes of a dating website, and she's even been on a Ray Mears survival course. She loves being a writer; to her there isn't a more satisfying and pleasing thing to do. She particularly enjoys writing love stories. She believes falling in love is the best thing in the world, and she wants all her characters to experience it, and her readers to share their stories.

To find out more about Katie Fforde step into her world at katiefforde.com, visit her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @KatieFforde.

Romance, humour, a cast of warm and totally believable characters, and the tantalising possibility of happy-ever-after? It must be the new Katie Fforde novel.

1963, a chateau in Provence.

It's late afternoon when Alexandra arrives, and the chateau before her is old, substantial and its four large towers seem to grow out of the soil. It is, she thinks, reassuring in its permanence and solidity.

Less reassuring are the three silent, rather hostile children waiting for her inside. They are to be her charges for a month: a boy and two girls badly in need of some love, attention, and an English education.

Fresh from London and a recent cookery course, Alexandra has always loved a challenge and feels equipped to deal with most things life throws her.

What she is a good deal less sure about is whether she'll be able to cope with their father - an impossibly good-looking, entirely unsuitable French count with whom she is trying very hard not to fall in love . . .