About the story

When architect Hugo’s aunt leaves her house to butterfly expert Alice, a complete stranger, he’s shocked – especially as the will states Hugo must help Alice turn it into a butterfly centre! They clash over everything – but the attraction between them is hard to ignore…

About the author

I’ve always been fascinated by butterflies – remember seeing the cases of specimens at Norwich Castle museum when I was tiny (collected by Victorian lepidopterist Margeret Fountaine – which is what inspired me to use a female Victorian lepidopterist as the background)

Some of the research included going to see butterflies at Warham Camp and Wheatfen Broad, as well as the butterfly house at the Horniman in London. (I have pics!) – have lots of nerdy facts too that Hugo learns from Alice (and vice versa) if you wanted to do a ‘did you know’ pullout, eg butterfly skeletons are transparent, butterflies see ultraviolet patterns that humans can’t on flower petals, their body temp needs to be 30 degrees C before they can fly, glass is an amorphous solid (which means it moves!); when glass breaks the cracks move at more than 1000mph