HARDEN author Mary Jayne Baker is releasing her second novel with major publishing house HarperCollins.

Mary Jayne, real name Lisa Firth, is keeping her fingers crossed for a bestseller with romantic comedy Meet Me At The Lighthouse.

The 35-year-old graphic designer said: “I’m not going to let modesty talk me out of it – I’m very proud of this one!

“I worked closely with my agent, Laura Longrigg at MBA Literary Agents in London, to really fine-tune the plot and characters long before it reached my editor at HarperCollins, and I think it’s a very strong, funny story. I hope readers will agree.”

Meet Me At The Lighthouse – follow-up to last year’s The Honey Trap – is set on the Yorkshire coast. It tells the story of Bobbie, a fun-loving twenty-something, and the old schoolfriend who suddenly comes back into her life after an absence of ten years: talented guitar player, Ross Mason.

The pair hatch an ambitious plan to renovate their town’s ramshackle Victorian lighthouse as a music venue, but with hostile councillors, ex-partners and varied secrets throwing obstacles in their way, it seems like neither the project nor the course of true love is likely to run smooth.

Mary Jayne said: “It’s kind of a love letter to the British seaside holiday.

“Cragport, the fictional town where the characters live, is a hodge-podge of Scarborough, Blackpool, Southport and Staithes, with a little bit of Whitby thrown in for good measure.

“I could practically smell the candyfloss while I was writing; it brought back a lot of happy memories.”

Meet Me At The Lighthouse will be published as an ebook on Kindle and other platforms on June 30, currently priced at £2.99, and the paperback edition will be available from September 7.

Mary Jayne graduated from Durham University in 2003 with a degree in English Literature. She dallied with living in cities including London, but is now back in the North writing about girls with flaws and the men who love them.