Leaving Patrick by Prue Leith (Penguin, £5.99 in UK)

With this tale of a marriage that's gone past its sell-by date, cookery writer and broadcaster Prue Leith has whipped up a slice of romantic fiction that melts in the mouth as easily as lemon tart - and leaves the same kind of cheeky aftertaste. High-flying lawyer wife Jane can't combine her mega-successful multinational career with the kind of cosy domestic bliss to which her husband, London restaurateur Patrick, aspires; so she ditches not just the domesticity but Patrick as well. Leith's affable, wryly funny prose is spiced up by peppery references to "the people who matter" in the food trade, and even if she added a touch too much sugar, and the cap fell off the "sex scenes - use only the tiniest pinch" jar as she was shaking it open, Leaving Patrick is the kind of fictional souffle that actually satisfies.