A Mother's Guide To Cheating


Kate Long - 2010
    Three generations of one family driven apart by infidelity, in this riveting new novel from the author of The Bad Mother's Handbook

Is There Anything You Want?


Margaret Forster - 2005
    But they are all survivors.This compelling novel follows the ripples that go out into ordinary lives, women's lives in particular, which have been scarred and changed by a shared experience, all connected by the same hospital clinic in a small Northern town. This is a novel about what it means to live in the shadow of disease and with its scars, whether mental and physical, looking back over one's shoulder while trying to go forward. You can trip up or, if you're careful, you might make it . . .

Claude’s Christmas Adventure


Sophie Pembroke - 2016
    He’s a loveable, big-eared, permanently hungry French Bulldog, who loves his humans – the McCawley family of number 11 Maple Drive to be precise.When Daisy and Oliver McCawley start using new words like, ‘ferry’, ‘chateau’ and ‘France’, Claude realises they won’t be spending this Christmas at home. Only, when he finds himself on the street, as the family car pulls away, Claude realises he is ALONE. And more importantly, he is without all the yummy treats he knows the festive season brings…Cue the start of Claude’s Christmas Adventure. It all begins with a belly-flop through next door’s catflap, where he finds newly single and craft-a-holic Holly, Jack the ex-army postman, his arch nemesis Perdita the cat … and serious amounts of gingerbread.Maple Drive’s cutest resident is about to bring the street together for Christmas, in ways no-one could have imagined …

I'll Be There For You


Louise Candlish - 2005
    'I know you don't trust life any more. But you've still got to live it - and so do I.'Hannah and Juliet Goodwin have been best friends since childhood, but when Juliet's boyfriend Luke is killed just as Hannah marries the affluent Michael, the divide between the two sisters is suddenly too painful to bear. While Hannah prepares for the birth of her first child, Juliet begins to neglect her job, her health, and all those who love her the most. Hannah is the last person she'd appeal to for help. But then she finds herself drawn into a secret betrayal that threatens to destroy Hannah's happiness before she even has a chance to enjoy it . . .

The Scarlet Nightingale


Alan Titchmarsh - 2018
    Under the expert guidance of her formidable aunt, the country mouse learns how to act like a lady, hosting dinner parties and rubbing shoulders with Britain's most influential. And when the enigmatic Harry Napier sweeps her off her feet at London's famous Café de Paris she could almost forget that Britain has declared war. But the Phoney War ends. Harry is posted, London reels from the first bombings of the Blitz and Rosamund suffers a devastating personal loss that leaves her all the more determined to do her bit for the war effort. Joining the Special Forces she is sent to work alongside the Resistance on a top secret mission in France. It is here that her courage and loyalty are truly put to the test. And where she learns that no one is what they seem: at home or abroad ...

Little Girl Lost


Donna Douglas - 2015
     But an unexpected arrival beats him to it and, as one discovery leads to another, the past comes back to confront the present. But will Staff Nurse Rose Chambers be able to forgive and forget? It is Christmas after all …

The Playgroup


Janey Fraser - 2012
    Now, with an opportunity to prove herself Gemma Merryfield can't wait to take over running it in September. But the arrival of the new head of the infant school, Joe Balls soon tempers her enjoyment. Ex-banker Joe has been employed to bring the school back up to scratch, and that includes intefering with Gemma and her playgroup. Gemma adores her unruly group of children, and she can even find affection for the parents, but Joe's inteference is the last thing she needs.Meanwhile, Nancy is in turmoil. Her only son has just started playgroup and her husband has taken a temporary posting to Vietnam. Even before he left, there hadn't been much hope of conceiving her much-wanted second child. And with Danny gone for most of the day, what on earth is she meant to do now? Does she have the strength to find herself again, and maybe make some friends along the way?Little do any of them realise what a tumultuous term it is going to be...

Unforgotten


Clare Francis - 2008
    His client Tom Deacon is claiming damages for post-traumatic stress after a car accident in which he witnessed the death of his young daughter by fire. The case is going well, it seems certain Tom will win the compensation that will enable him to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. Then Hugh receives an anonymous letter that throws him into an impossible dilemma. To stay on the case is unethical, to withdraw will threaten its success, and Tom Deacon, revealing himself in an entirely new light, makes it clear that such treachery will not be forgiven. For Hugh the dilemma is intensified by the contrast between their lives: Tom tormented by flashbacks, jobless, with a broken marriage and two children he hardly sees; Hugh with what he regards as a blessed existence, a rewarding life as a jobbing solicitor and an intensely happy marriage to Lizzie, with whom he has two adopted children, Lou away on her gap year, and fragile, sensitive Charlie who seems to have overcome his personal demons. Then one night Hugha s life changes for ever.His happiness is snatched away, and he, like Tom, must face a lifetime of troubling memories.

The Great Summer Sewing Bee


Alex Brown - 2019
    When disaster strikes, threatening to ruin Cher’s wedding, her best friend, Sybil comes up with a plan. Can the villagers and the sew solid crew from Hettie’s House of Haberdashery and their Singer sewing machines save the big day to give Cher her perfect, country wedding?

Hell West and Crooked


Tom Cole - 1988
    His experiences, as he has collected them together in Hell West and Crooked, will surely become an Australian classic.

Tightrope


Marnie Riches - 2019
    With Bev's former glittering marketing career in the gutter, she begins to do investigative work for other wronged women, gathering dirt on philanderers, bosses and exes.But when Beverley takes on the case of Sophie's friend Angela, who is seeking to uncover grounds for divorce from her controlling husband, Jerry, the shadow Science Minister, she soon discovers that she isn't the only one doing the investigating... Beverley has a secret history she doesn't want coming out - but will she manage to stay hidden long enough to give Angela the freedom she deserves? Marnie Riches is back in this darkly comic thriller, perfect for fans of Martina Cole and Kimberley Chambers. Praise for Marnie Riches: 'Gritty and gripping' Kimberley Chambers, Sunday Times No.1 Bestseller'Marnie Riches is already a leading light in the field of Mancunian noir.' The Guardian'Gritty and great fun.' The Express'Pacy, poignant, funny and violent, it grabs you by the hand and drags you down the mean streets of Manchester with such verve and authenticity that you can almost smell the rain and blood as you turn the pages.' Simon Toyne'Fast-paced and enthralling' C. L. Taylor'Fast, furious, fantastic...One killer thriller!' Mark Edwards'Edgy' Clare Mackintosh

The Brighton Guest House Girls


Lesley Eames - 2019
    Thea, Anna and Daisy forge an unbreakable friendship through adversity. Thea's loathsome stepbrother is trying to trick her out of her inheritance of her parents' beautiful house in the seaside town of Brighton by means of a Will which Thea believes to be forged. He gives her three months in which to leave. Afterwards she will face destitution. Anna is pregnant and grieving, her explorer fiancé lost at sea. Her violent father drives her from the family home in the back streets of London's Bermondsey and her fiancé's upper-class relatives cruelly reject her. Daisy is in search of independence, running from a man she doesn't want to marry. Together the three girls set up Thea's home as a guest house and embark on a mission to outwit her stepbrother by proving his fraud. In a race against time, nothing will turn out to be quite as it seems.

Spence in Petal Park


Michael Allen - 1977
     When he is found dead in his driveway three days before Christmas, Detective Superintendent Spence immediately gets to work. Spence believes in method, groundwork, and a proper filing system. In a mobile police unit near the scene of the crime, the investigation is soon under way. And there's plenty to investigate. Parnell's life-style included sharp business practices, an unhealthy interest in the girls at the expensive school behind his house, blackmail and seduction. Interviewing Parnell's neighbours, associates and lovers, Spence soon concludes that plenty of people had cause to hate him. But which of the apparently sensible, ordinary people behind the privet hedges of exclusive Petal Park actually killed him? Spence in Petal Park weaves the stories of the people in Parnell's life into a complex web of cause and effect, which Spence's careful work finally unravels — just before Christmas.

The Surprise Party


Sue Welfare - 2011
    

Jericho Falls


Christopher Hyde - 1986
    He careens off the road, smashes his vehicle and is killed instantly. But his van holds no ordinary cargo. And soon the nearby picture-postcard village of Jericho Falls will be plunged into the most terrifying disaster imaginable. A powerful lethal virus has been leaked into the peacefully innocent town. Sheriff Jack Slater and other leading citizens turn to the outside for help that the true nightmare is revealed: Jericho Falls must be wiped off the face of the earth.