Beating off some stiff competition, Piatkus author Linda Gillard has been shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award for her novel Star Gazing - a haunting, lyrical story, set in Skye, about a blind woman and the enigmatic stranger on her doorstep.

The six shortlisted novels are:

- Thanks for the Memories - Cecelia Ahern (Harper Collins)
- The Last Concubine - Lesley Downer (Transworld/Bantam)
- Star Gazing - Linda Gillard (Little, Brown/Piatkus)
- East of the Sun - Julia Gregson (Orion)
- Sophia's Secret - Susanna Kearsley (Allison & Busby)
- Before the Storm - Judith Lennox (Headline Review)

Judges with the tricky job of picking the winner are Alice O'Keeffe, Books Editor at The Bookseller, Fanny Blake, Books Editor of Woman & Home, and Peter Crawshaw, who runs Lovereading.co.uk. The Awards Lunch will be held on 10th February 2009 at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington.

Good luck, Linda!

You can also visit the Little, Brown Blog to read an extract from Star Gazing and to read an interview with Linda Gillard.