KATE MORRIS

Meet Ellie. She's been married to Jack for seven years, has two occasionally-adorable-but-mostly-demanding children and is about to open a café with her friend, Tilda. But Jack is a soap actor whose long-running character has been killed off, leaving him hanging around the house and getting under the feet of Petra, an au pair too glamorous for her own good - even if she is a dab hand with glitter and glue. Meanwhile Ellie's excitement about the café is making her marriage seem dreary in comparison and when the gorgeous Mark moves in next door (with a wife in tow, admittedly) she asks herself when she and Jack went past their sell-by-date. How can she put the sizzle back into her love life without breaking the rules? And is there really something better out there - or is she just scratching a classic seven year itch?

When her old flame Sam rings up one day and invites her on a villa holiday in Italy, Jen is completely thrown off balance. Sam, as she cannot help but recall, was the best kiss of her life. With her husband Marcus constantly travelling the world for work, and seven-year-old Alfie still in the marital bed, the joys of marriage and motherhood are thin on the ground for Jen these days... What could be more appealing than being with old friends and recapturing a little bit of their youth? Six months later, Jen and Marcus arrive at the stunning Villa La Silerchie. Everything s set for the holiday of a lifetime; but as the week progresses, and tensions rise in the August heat, relationships unravel, old rivalries re-emerge, and uncomfortable truths have to be faced. Who knew what seven days in the sun could lead to...