"Just pretend that the man you wish to marry is standing before you," the designer instructed Anthea as she waited to model the wedding dress in the grand finale of his Spring Collection. But the man Anthea wished to marry was out there in the salon-with the woman who had taken Anthea's place as his future bride!

Marianne was young, she was in Paris – that perfect setting for romance. She had a wonderful job working with the world-famous dress designer Florian, and she was in love with Nat. What more could she want? Quite a lot, unfortunately – most of all, some idea of how Nat really felt about her. Did he have any more than a brotherly feeling for her? What chance did she have with him, after all, when the glamorous Lisette has her claws firmly fixed into him and has no intention of letting go? Mary Burchell was the pen name of Ida Cook (1904-1986). With her eldest sister Mary Louise Cook, she attended the Duchess' School in Alnwick. Together, the sisters helped 29 Jews to escape from the Nazis, funded mainly by Ida's writing. In 1965, the Cook sisters were honored as Righteous Gentiles by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel. Mary Burchell published more than 125 romance novels in total and helped found the Romantic Novelists’ Association, standing as its president from 1966 until her death.