‘Let the man take you out for a drink. He probably saved us all his pocket money just for this very occasion.’
 
- Zoe Foster
(The Younger Man)

‘Have you ever looked at someone in the street and wished you had their life? Just like that, without knowing anything real about them?’
 
- Lauren Henderson (My Lurid Past)

‘Launching Amy into her life of wedded bliss is turning out to be more expensive and time-consuming than putting on the Olympics.’
 
- Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees (Come Again)

‘Life's best adventures are as close as your nearest bookshelf. Tour Europe with the Count of Monte Cristo. Dance a ball with Mr Darcy. Hunt down bad guys with Stephanie Plum. Amazing things can happen when you read.’
 
- Ally Carter (Cheating at Solitaire)

‘Maybe the problem was that we never struggled. There was nothing to bond us together, us against the world ... We just coasted along. The thing about coasting is that it usually means you're going downhill.’
 
- Molly Harper (And One Last Thing)

‘No real man in Jenna's life had ever so much as approached her feelings for (singer) Tommy Seer ... What New York guy with male-pattern baldness was likely to hold any sort of candle to a man who looked good in sprayed-on leather pants and a glittery headband?’
 
- Megan Crane (I Love the 80s)

‘I tend to think the good outweighs the bad. Then again, I try to be a glass half-full person. Although I stand by my theory that if you measure your happiness by the amount of liquid you have in your glass, you are either a cliche or an alcoholic.’
 
- Caprice Crane (With A Little Luck)

‘Days that change your life start out like any other. There is no big sign written across the sky saying, Hello, your world is about to be ripped apart.’
 
- Sarah Harte (The Better Half)

‘Four minutes and eight seconds. That's how long my husband, Michael Dunhill, was dead. Four minutes and eight seconds. That's how long it took for my husband to become a complete stranger to me.’
 
- Sarah Pekkanen (Skipping a Beat)

‘The trick of it, she told herself, is to be courageous and bold and make a difference. Not change the world exactly, just the bit around you. ... Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully and well. Experience new things. Love and be loved if at all possible.’
 
- David Nicholls (One Day)

‘Helen wondered if there was any significance in the fact that she was having a meal with another man on the day her husband had finally agreed to have a vasectomy. Having decided to put an end to the possibility of bearing any more of Alex's children, was she subconsciously seeking out someone who could successfully impregnate her?’
 
- Lizzie Enfield (What You Don't Know)

‘Most people behaved slightly differently with different people. The secret was to mix with the people who brought out one's best characteristics.’
 
- Debby Holt (Friends, Lies and Alibis)

‘There's no time to hold grudges when you've seen how fragile things can really be.’
 
- Allison Winn Scotch (The Department of Lost and Found)

‘There's something very comforting about watching a Hugh Grant movie. You know no one's head will be blown off ... the worst thing that might happen is seeing a lanky Welshman eating mayonnaise in his underpants.’
 
- Ali McNamara (From Notting Hill With Love...Actually)

‘Don't be afraid to fall in love again. Open your heart and follow where it leads you ... and remember, shoot for the moon ... PS, I will always love you ...’
 
- Cecelia Ahern (PS I Love You)

‘Four-year-olds today are a different breed ... For one thing they know their party rights, and these include one large balloon filled with helium and not puff, one party bag containing at least five items - three of which must be edible and bad for the teeth - and either one bouncy castle or an entertainer, preferably unseen at any other children's party in the neighbourhood within the last three months.’
 
- Catherine Alliott (The Real Thing)

‘Have you ever noticed that the modern romantic heroine can be, not to put too fine a point on it, a bit useless? ... Whoops, I dropped my overstuffed handbag on the pavement, and who should help me pick up the four hundred lipsticks and shoes that fell out but a gorgeous man who fell in love with me, the end ... When I drop my handbag, the only men who rush to pick it up are after the contents of my wallet rather than my hand in marriage.’
 
- Pippa Wright (Lizzy Harrison Loses Control)

‘Thirty-five, the midpoint of your thirties, the decade in which you must both churn out children and soar in your chosen career ... What bad luck for women that these biological and professional imperatives should coincide and collide so exactly. This coincidence double-glazes the glass ceiling.’
 
- Christina Hopkinson (The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs)

‘Ellie studied Jamie's expression. She needed to know how he felt about what had happened earlier. The good thing was, he didn't look outraged. He seemed completely relaxed. Then again, she was the one making him look like that.’
 
- Jill Mansell (To the Moon and Back)

‘So here I am. Twenty-eight years old, with thirty looming on the horizon. Drunk. Fat. Alone. Unloved. And, worst of all, a cliche, Ally McBeal and Bridget Jones put together, which was probably about how much I weighed...’
 
- Jennifer Weiner (Good in Bed)

‘Dex can be my secret, my last chance for a dark twenty-something chapter, and he can also be a prelude of sorts - a promise of someone like him to come.’
 
- Emily Giffin (Something Borrowed)

‘He turned me into something I didn't want to be. Seven years of having to nag, and scream, and fight, and be a policeman in my own home was enough for me. It's not that you get a seven year itch. It's that they turn you into a seven year bitch.’
 
- Jennifer Belle (The Seven Year Bitch)

‘Even though I know I ought to be worrying, I can't help enjoying our crazy mistake. The sky is so beautiful, with the stars bright above and dangerous volcano steam wisping across the moon. I feel utterly alive.’
 
- Deborah Wright (Swimming with Dolphins)

‘"Take a break?" He couldn't make sense of this. "Claudia, look at me. You do not take a break from your dreams." He knew that sounded like a daytime talk-show cliche ... but in this moment, the sentiment seemed vital. It was of critical importance that she not step away from the person he wanted her to be.’
 
- Janelle Brown (This is Where We Live)

‘Below the glitter of chandeliers in the ornate room, starved cheekbone hit surgeried temple as fake air kiss met fake air kiss. Celebrities and socialites had fought capped tooth and tipped nail - and that was just the men - to be in the very front.’
 
- Wendy Holden (Gallery Girl)

‘Jeans, T-shirts, more jeans, Birkenstocks - honestly, Mimsy, I thought you spent time in Paris! How could you go to the world's fashion capital and come back with the wardrobe of a German hiker?’
 
- Melanie La'Brooy (Bittersweet/The Wedding Planner)

‘The Chancellor has indeed made a recent speech in which he highlighted the importance of retail to the British economy. Unfortunately at this time there are no specific OBEs or damehoods 'for shopping' as you suggest. Should such an honour be introduced I will be sure to put forward your name.’
 
- Sophie Kinsella (Mini Shopaholic)

‘Vanessa returned her attention to Francesca (the nanny). 'You want to travel the globe? The world?' she tried. 'Yais!' cried Francesca excitedly. 'And you can't take the children with you?' asked Vanessa.’
 
- Melissa Nathan (The Nanny)

‘Despite the fact that I love the film When Harry Met Sally, I know from personal experience that its premise - a relationship between a man and a woman is never purely platonic - is a load of tosh.’
 
- Jane Costello (My Single Friend)

‘Bore someone else with your questions.’
 
- Lauren Weisberger (The Devil Wears Prada)

‘Contrary to popular belief, he hadn't married Cressida for her money. He had married her for her complete indifference to it.’
 
- Madeleine Wickham (The Tennis Party)

‘Along with the rest of her generation, Molly is bored by foreign languages, but somehow manages to speak fluent Beverly Hills brat.’
 
- Allison Pearson (I Think I Love You)

‘ Although I always fancied Martin Kemp . .. I knew I didn't have a hope in hell with him. He was going out with one of the backing singers in Wham! I fancied George Michael as well ... I didn't think he had a girlfriend, so maybe I was in with a chance there.’
 
- Linda Green (Things I Wish I'd Known)

‘ I plucked a seemingly huge pair of black pants off my shelf. The waistband seemed sized for Miss Piggy after a Twinkie binge ... I cast a rueful glance at my pre-pregnancy pants. They taunted me with their low waistbands and slim stitiching: Don'tcha wish your MIss Piggy pants were hot like us? Don'tcha?’
 
- Maureen Lipinski (Not Ready for Mom Jeans)