Livy Prescott is a young wife dependent upon,beholden to, and manipulated by Celene, a slave. In 1860, Edward Prescott gallops into Livy Taylor’s life racing his carriage down the main street of her tiny Pennsylvania town, winning a bet and her heart. After they wed, Livy is swept away to Merrywood, Edward’s home in the hills of North Carolina. There Livy faces the daunting task of adjusting to her new life as Mistress of Merrywood and slave-owner. And there Livy encounters Celene, the beautiful slave cook of Merrywood, skilled in the healing arts and privy to the deepest secrets of the Prescotts. Gradually Livy learns the extent of Celene’s influence and the hold she maintains over her master, causing Livy to question who is the real mistress of Merrywood.

    But will it cost her all she holds dear?England, 1944: With deadly doodlebugs terrorising London, Bessie Rushbrook agrees to give shelter to eight-year-old evacuee, Marigold, in her Norfolk home. However, the little girl is no random stranger, and Bessie must honour the promise she gave to Marigold’s mother, Grace, and not reveal her connection to the child.Marigold’s arrival stirs up Bessie’s memories from the past when the world was at war for the first time. She is forced to face her actions from those days, and question the haunting secret that she’s long kept hidden.When Grace is injured in London, Bessie makes the heart-wrenching decision to confess her secret, knowing that it could destroy everything she holds dear – her marriage, family and home. Will those who love her understand, and can they forgive her?

     Abandoned as a baby Maise never gave up hope that one day her mother would return to claim her as her own, but as she stood in the dirty river water that dream soon washed away. She soon learnt that life was like the river; dark, fast moving and dangerous. Life would teach her lessons she had never wanted to learn, but would fate mend what had been broken, before she succumbed to the Thames as so many had before her?

    Her father has gone to bring home a son missing because of the war. Loyal servants give her support and comfort and are at her side when she learns of her father’s death. She promises to fulfill her father’s dream but someone doesn’t want her to, the one person she should be able to trust. He sets out to defeat her until another man, a Northern stranger, comes to her aid.

    When the Arapaho mine collapses, a series of tragic events are to follow: murdered bodies of locals are identified in the woods, as well as downtown. Jack will attempt to solve the riddle of the sudden deaths, while he'll be confronted with an impossible dilemma: Is it a creature that should be blamed for the mysterious losses, or is there another evil force that is threatening the town?Laura Allsop had just moved to Griswold along with her husband, when he tragically died in the mine cave-in. Although they got married for companionship and she was never genuinely enamoured with him, Laura is deeply traumatized by his bitter end. Despite the fatal start of her new life in Griswold, she will not give up. She is determined to stay, and run a small kitchen in order to make her living. Will she finally manage to overcome the sorrowful events of the past and build a better future? A thrilling story full of adventure, mystery and romance, where the expected becomes the unexpected. How will Jack and Laura trace the dangerous menace, so that the cursed town doesn't face another horrific loss?

    . . a real page turner' Sheila Newberry 1860s London Orphaned at a young age, Rosa has always looked out for her younger sister, Grace, protecting her from the dangers and bullies of the workhouse.So when Grace is suddenly faced with a world without Rosa, she finds herself alone and forced to make difficult decisions about her future. Can she really walk away from everything she has built to protect the children Rosa has left behind?Returning to the gang-ruled streets of south-east London, Grace is determined to build a better future for herself and for the children of Bell Lane - no matter what the cost . . .

    The intensive education that follows offers Henry a model for future excellence; a model that he is doomed to fail.On his accession, he chooses his brother’s widow, Caterina of Aragon, to be his queen. Together they plan to reinstate the glory of days of old and fill the royal nursery with boys.But when their first-born son dies at just a few months old, and subsequent babies are born dead or perish in the womb, the king’s golden dreams are tarnishedChristendom mocks the virile prince. Caterina’s fertile years are ending yet all he has is one useless living daughter, and a baseborn son.He needs a solution but stubborn to the end, Caterina refuses to step aside.As their relationship founders his eye is caught by a woman newly arrived from the French court. Her name is Anne Boleyn. A Matter of Conscience: The Aragon Years offers a unique first-person account of the ‘monster’ we love to hate and reveals a man on the edge; an amiable man made dangerous by his own impossible expectation.The story continues in A Matter of Faith : Book Two of The Henrician Chronicle.

    Deserted by a selfish man, and driven to the workhouse, young Annabel and her midwife mother face a harsh and hopeless future.A critical situation for the workhouse governor then opens a door of deliverance for them both, but it seems that revenge and bitterness hound their every step.A harrowing story of stolen love, rich and poor, faith, family, and fearful odds, Born A Workhouse Child, will keep your heart pounding and your hopes soaring to the end.Join Dolly Price for her most heart-warming Victorian romance yet, and follow Annabel’s courageous quest to discover the real meaning of love, faith, and family.

    Who has not wondered about old houses as they passed by? Who was the builder? Did he take pride in his work? Were the inhabitants always happy or were there hard times? How many people passed through the doors? Old House is a story about one house. It is located in a fictitious valley in the state of Montana U.S.A. Through the course of one hundred years, these are the people who lived, laughed, loved, and cried as they called this old house their home. Each chapter in the book is a story in itself. It begins with the man who built the house in the late 1860s, and it continues with the people who found lodging and refuge in it - from a young man with a bounty on his head, an old man in search of gold, to a woman seeking protection.

    With her mother Florrie missing, and her spineless father no use at all, it fell to Kate to look after the family. But life in East London at the end of the nineteenth century had never been easy, and with her cruel half-brother Alex becoming more and more difficult, she despaired of ever seeing her beloved mother again. Her fortunes change when one day, searching for Florrie around the docks, she meets a friendly face in the form of John Kelly, a cheery Irishman who rescues her from a tricky situation. Together with his grandparents, John reminds her how good life can be – and she soon dreams of happiness with him. But the dark shadow of Alex hangs over her still, and when he learns of her new friendship, his cruelty slides into madness. Harbouring unnatural desires for his beautiful half-sister, he will never allow the Irishman to take her away – but Kate has inherited her mother’s spirit as well as her looks, and vows to forge her own way: discovering what became of Florrie, and giving herself a deserved chance of love… Bow Belles is an unputdownable saga from a master of the genre, sure to enthral readers of Dilly Court, Sally Warboyes, and Katie Flynn.

    What Michael doesn’t expect, is to be put in charge of a group of offenders and sent to a remote location in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Spain to teach them survival skills as part of their rehabilitation programme. But Michael knows nothing at all about survival skills. He was sort of in the SAS, yes, but his shining record on the “Escape and Evasion” courses was more a testament to his computer skills than his ability to catch wildlife and barbecue it over an impromptu fire. Basically, he was the SAS’s techy nerd and only achieved that position as a result of a bet with a fellow hacker. Facing a stark choice between starvation or returning home to serve out their sentences, the group of offenders under Michael’s supervision soon realise that the only way to survive is to use their own unique set of skills – the kind of skills that got them arrested in the first place.

    

    

    Nothing and no one keeps us lot down.'A life of poverty in a cramped pit cottage is all that seventeen-year-old Ruby Dinsdale has known. Even with her father and younger brother working at the coal mine, money is tight. Her mother Mary is skilled at stretching what little they have, but the small contribution Ruby makes from her job at the local pub makes all the difference. So when Ruby is sacked, and Mary becomes pregnant again, the family's challenges are greater than ever.When charming miner Gordon begins to court Ruby it seems as though happiness is on the horizon, until she uncovers a deeper betrayal than she could ever have imagined.But although the Dinsdales are materially poor, they are rich in love, friendship and determination - all qualities that they will draw on to get them through whatever lies ahead.

    His life with his wife, Maggie, changes when he moves from London’s suburbs to a house in Devon overlooking the Exe estuary. It changes even more, and not for the better, when Maggie’s father, Jack, a widower, comes to live with them. Struggling under the pressures of caring for Jack, Maggie and Colm begin to see each other differently. Cracks appear in their marriage. When Jack asks Colm to help him die, Colm glimpses freedom and decides to oblige by leaving Jack to drown in the bath. But it’s not that simple. Mercy killing, practised without a manual, is not an exact science.