Marley and Drexel had been dating for two years, and best friends for even longer. On paper they made sense, on paper they were the ideal goals, but in her heart, she knew they were never supposed to be. Drexel didn’t give her butterflies. He didn’t make her heart race. Her body flush with heat or her sex thump. No, he didn’t ignite her desire. He didn’t make her choose recklessness over common sense. Risk over safety. No one man could do that and do it so well. Well… Demetri Savant. The walking embodiment of pure unadulterated sex. The only man to make her abandon every bit of her morals. The only person to singlehandedly challenge the life she settled for. He was a risk she craved, but she was used to safety. Torn between her heart and hurting another, what will Marley choose? Better yet, who will she choose?

    She gains a respectable post as housekeeper to an elderly man, but when he dies his waspish sister throws her out onto the streets where she faces destitution. At the entrance to the notorious Paradise Park Hotel she encounters Sal, a young street girl whom she tries to rescue. Her attempt ends in failure and Sal returns to her old life on the streets, leaving Rhiannon is even more determined to become respectable. She obtains a job as maid to unhappy Janey Buchan, who takes a liking to Rhiannon and teaches her ladylike ways. Her rascally husband Dafydd, once the lover of Llinos Mainwaring, causes Janey great unhappiness, and eventually she runs away, leaving Rhiannon once more without a job or a home. In desperation, knowing that little stands between her and a return to her old life, she finds herself back at the Paradise Park Hotel. Once scarcely more than a bawdy house, it has now changed hands and Rhiannon starts working there, helping gradually to transform it from a place of ill-repute into one of the finest hotels in Swansea. The only thing lacking in her life is love, and with Bull Beynon married to sweet, gentle Katie, she fears that she may have to live out her life alone . . . Paradise Park is the triumphant finale to Iris Gower's Firebird sequence, set amongst the romantic clay potteries of South Wales.

    She thought marrying would liven him up, but after twenty-five years he's just as boring as the day she married him , and now she wants to lead her own life. Her newly-married daughter, Olive, is shocked, but Hilda is adamant. Meanwhile, a heavy East End gang has moved into the area from Shoreditch, and has established a lucrative protection racket, bringing drama and anxiety to this closely-knit neighbourhood.