Nice / Bellevue-Sur-Mer Books in Order

The Nice / Bellevue-Sur-Mer books are sunny, funny novels about starting over later in life. They take place in Bellevue-sur-Mer, a fictional town on the French Riviera, close enough to Nice, Cannes, and Monte Carlo to catch the glamour, but far enough away to feel like its own little world. Sea views, cafes, villas, and gossip all come as part of the package.

At the center, especially in Not Quite Nice, is Theresa. Forced into early retirement and tired of being taken for granted in London, she heads south looking for peace, freedom, and maybe a little romance. What she finds instead is a close-knit expat scene full of strong personalities, old secrets, and people who have all brought some baggage with them to paradise.

And once Theresa settles in, the books open out into a true ensemble.

Carol, Sally, William, Benjamin, and the other Bellevue-sur-Mer regulars give the series its real spark. Some are glamorous, some bossy, some adrift, and most are trying to remake themselves in one way or another. By Nice Work, their lives are tied together by a restaurant venture, which brings practical headaches, clashing loyalties, romantic confusion, and endless reasons for everybody to meddle in everybody else's business. No one stays gracefully on the sidelines for long.

The Riviera setting matters a lot here. Imrie uses it for more than postcard scenery. Bellevue-sur-Mer is a place where people arrive to recover, disappear, reinvent themselves, or enjoy a softer second act, and that means the town is always full of half-told stories. The nearby pull of Cannes, celebrity culture, and money adds sparkle, but it also brings temptation, suspicion, and the feeling that not everyone is quite who they say they are.

By A Nice Cup of Tea, the series leans more openly into cozy mystery. The friends are trying to keep La Mosaïque going while family worries, stalking, and unwanted faces from the past start crowding in. The stakes are usually personal rather than world-ending, money, reputation, friendship, love, and whether a fresh start can survive ordinary life, but that is exactly what gives the books their warmth.

These are Riviera capers with a soft spot for second chances.

If you like character-led comedy with a little intrigue, this is the appeal of the series. The books are breezy, sociable, and full of later-life adventures, but they never forget that reinvention can be messy. There is plenty of laughter, but there is also loneliness, pride, and the occasional bad decision. They work best in order because the friendships and running storylines build from book to book, even though each novel has its own main tangle to sort out.