Katie Fforde's Paradise Fields does most of the things that a mid-life romantic novel ought and manages to have a charm that is all of its own. Youngish widow Nel has thrown herself into organising a farmer's market to raise money for a local hospice and is appalled when the land they use is to be sold for jerry-built housing. She is even more upset to find herself attracted to the young solicitor who is acting for the other side in the deal--one of the infuriating things about Nel is that she thinks of herself as sufficiently past-it that she would rather date the sniffy prig Simon than Jake, whose view of her as gorgeous she finds herself unable to trust. Romantic novels such as this are built on the confounding of our expectations, but there are pleasant surprises beyond the usual--Fforde is very good, for example, on Nel's gradual softening towards Kerry Anne, the snotty American wife of the land's owner and on how a shared interest in organic skin products can make up for a lot of hostility. Not a ground-breaking book in any way, Paradise Fields nonetheless offers a pleasant mix of social observation, farce and mild steaminess. --Roz Kaveney