The Desperate Bride's Diet Club

Book excerpt: Violet Saunders is astounded when her boyfriend gets down on one knee and proposes. At size 18-20, she can't think why anyone would want to marry her and euphoria quickly turns to horror as she contemplates squeezing herself into a wedding dress. When a leaflet from dieting club New You! drops through her letterbox, she hurries to enrol, but is soon traumatised by the terrifying Trudie, who secretly despises her fat clients, while pretending to encourage them. Things go from bad to worse; everyone just gets fatter on the horrible New You! drink shakes. At work, Violet's half-Italian boss - a man with a lively sense of humour - looks on in amazement and finally persuades her to take a break from New You! and lunch with him at his family's delicatessen. All at once Violet experiences an explosion of beautiful tastes and textures. Inspired, she persuades her fellow dieters to form a new club, with secret weigh-ins at her house - while pretending to Trudie, of whom they are all petrified, that it is the New You! diet which is transforming them. Fabulous Italian recipes gradually begin to work their magic, but can Violet the duckling really become? Violet the swan in time for her wedding.