Emma is a hassled mother with no time for herself, and her husband has no energy after work and doesn't seem to see her anymore. Deciding to take up a fitness regime to get her weight down and regain her attractiveness, Emma only has her husband in mind. But the fitness instructor is sexy Ramon, who makes her feel desirable in a way she's never known.

Second in a series of adult novellas about ladies who encounter Ramon, BLOOM is a good counterpoint to the earlier Breaking The Rules about a closed-off academic. Emma has got as far as walking the dog each evening and her pal Lisa encourages her to step up the pace with a weekly exercise boot camp. Ramon, who is studying social sciences, conducts the class and reduces the pace of Emma's workouts as she is a beginner. Determined to catch up, Emma can't help but fantasise about Ramon. Meanwhile her three kids rebel against healthier food and her husband tells her that people her age can die from exercise. Lisa and Ramon are her only encouragement, but Emma starts to believe in herself again. And to believe that she's worth more.

Invisible mothers - those who support but are seldom appreciated by their family - will cheer for Emma, her sense of moral duty, her struggle to survive bringing up a family. Working out and working in the home both feel like thankless tasks, but she manages to go from dull to luminous and realises that at thirty-six she has a lot more living to do. The fantasies she lives out with Ramon are eroticism at its finest, tangling love, respect and freedom with the lure of the forbidden.

BLOOM by Kate Belle is written for adult women and will strike a chord with many, while others will see it as a masterful piece of writing and highly sexy romance.