UNPERFECT

When Mia shows up for the interview at a well-known architecture firm, she only has 27p, a squashed loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter to her name. She needs this job. Even if she is scared to death of the owner of the company.

Max has made a name for himself as that grumpy northern architect off Grand Designs, after he told Kevin McCloud that designing affordable, environmentally friendly homes "wasn't rocket science" and that most of the other projects featured on the programme were for "reight poncy bastads who want to spend a grand on a shite tap." It turned out that the whole gorgeous-but-rough-around-the-edges-Yorkshire-man vibe was just what the country was looking for - the episode had gone viral and Max was the new, extremely reluctant, pin-up of the building industry.

But to Mia, huge, grumpy men weren't sexy, they were simply terrifying. She knows from experience that even men of average size can be dangerous. If she wasn't so desperate, she'd run. She's used to running. Running away is Mia's special talent, together with invisibility - survival techniques she's perfected over the years. So, she'll put up with Max and his moods, ignore him calling her a teen emo freak (he's not to know that her black hair used to be honey blonde or her heavy eyeliner isn't by choice) and just bloody well jog on. Just try to survive. Try to hide.

It's easy to hide when nobody really sees you. But what happens when Max finally opens his eyes?

Susie Tate is a general practitioner and lives in beautiful Dorset with her three scrummy little boys, her husband (a doctor working in anaesthetics) and dog. She flits between being an author and a GP, but loves both. Maybe it's a bit unusual for a doctor to be writing romantic comedy/contemporary romance. But she's worked with and treated some real characters in her time and been involved with some pretty bizarre and often hilarious situations, and she wanted to use her experience to write what she hopes are funny, occasionally heartbreaking stories with a real insight into what goes on in hospital medicine and society at large. Work is hectic, but reading and writing keep her sane!