SYNOPSIS: When Amber Pepper’s jeweller boyfriend Hugh asks her to join him on a business trip to the paradise islands of Tahiti she’s not keen – Amber loves big jumpers and rain. She’d rather be pedaling through puddles at home in Oxford than lolling in the gel-blue waters of the South Pacific. However, the prospect of sipping Mai Tais with her long-lost friend Felicity is incentive enough to coax her on the twenty-hour flight. Together the girls discover a seductive new world of mesmerising music, exotic black pearls and sexy strangers. And for the first time Amber falls head over flip-flops in lust, only to receive an unexpected marriage proposal. Will she opt for a barefoot beach wedding or cast caution – and her coconut bra – to the wind? No easy decision for a drizzle-loving gal when it’s ninety degrees in the shade…

THEMES: Doing the Right Thing versus Following your Heart

LOCATIONS: Oxford, UK + Bora Bora, Manahi and Papeete in Tahiti, French Polynesia

OPENING LINES: Tahiti, how do I love thee? Let me count the waves… My toes slip into the luminous blue of the lagoon, so warm it barely registers as water. Even as I waft my feet back and forth I am more aware of a silky sensuality than liquid. I squint open one eye to check that my legs really are immersed and find that I have been set in turquoise jelly from the knee down…

BELINDA SAYS: My Editor Kate said to me: ‘I think your next book should be set in Paradise.’ And who am I to argue? Technically I’m not a beach person but I promise you this place was not wasted on me. My eyes got wider every day, trying to take in all the beauty. We actually stayed in one of those over-water bungalows with the glass coffee table you can slide back to feed the fish! 2 other little facts: 1) The leading men of the story – Tony & Tezz – are actually entirely real. I met them performing in Vegas but transplanted their show to Tahiti for the story and they didn’t mind a bit. 2) I originally wanted to call this book FLY ME TO LAGOON…