Only those who know them best realize that Milly's dark brown eyes hide a wild, untamed wantonness, while Beth's silvery-grey ones betray her idealism and kindness.But the only man in the room either of them wants is the one who could destroy both their lives. Hugh, sixteenth Lord Thornley, is a rake who needs to marry an heiress to restore the fortune his father gambled away. Even a lowly daughter of a glass manufacturer will do - provided she is biddable and strong and willing to bear the son he needs. Beth, he decides, will make him the perfect wife. But it is Milly who traps him into a loveless marriage - and sets in motion a chain of events that could destroy everything they hold dear.

    The compelling new novel from the Sunday Times top ten bestselling author of The Workhouse Girl.Eleven-year-old Stella Barry is forced into service when her family find themselves living hand-to-mouth.Leaving her mother and younger brother and sister behind, Stella goes to a big country house outside London. When she returns home one Sunday, she discovers they have disappeared. Thrown out of their lodgings, no one knows where they have gone.Seven years later it looks likely Stella will soon become Cook. But circumstances compel her to flee with no references and only a few personal possessions to her name.She has never forgotten her loving family and is determined to find out what happened to them - once and for all.

    The youngest of three, she longs to be loved by her mother, but Ellen spends all her time with her eldest son, while Abbie and her brother, Sam, take refuge with their neighbours, Sandra Lewis and Peter Ryan. Although vibrant and attractive, Abbie pushes people away with her constant need for reassurance. Infatuated with Peter, she longs for the day when he tells her that he loves her. And Sam is courting Sandra. But Peter and Sandra have a secret - one that could destroy the friends' relationship should it become known. Will Abbie finally find the security and affection she has been searching for all her life, or will she always be looking for love...?

    But danger threatens Keara as she starts the search for her lost sisters.

    Rhys, Viscount Hadley, is the practical sort. A true gentleman of the Ton, he leaves London at his Uncle’s request to render counsel to the daughter of an old friend. Riding through the country to a small Hampshire village, he has no idea where this journey is headed. Lady Alice Korte-Giddenhurst senses his imminent arrival. She has strange gifts — talents for which there are no rational or scientific explanations. She knows, in that mystical place within her mind, that Rhys will be more than just a visitor. So much more. And she finds herself eager to begin their dance of desire. When Rhys arrives, he’s thunderstruck — the woman welcoming him seems to be glowing. Or maybe it’s just the immediate and powerful attraction he feels toward her. Whatever it is, he’s intrigued enough to stay for dinner…and thus the adventure begins.

    Joseph Hobson is a bullying man and Evie isn't the only one who lives in fear of her father's violent temper. Then one day a bedraggled woman enters the shop and dies on the premises. Evie is shocked to discover she was in fact her mother, whom she had been told was dead. Why had her father lied to her? What secret was he trying to keep? One thing's for sure, Evie can't take much more from him and when she catches the eye of local lad Ned Collins they plan to run away to begin a new life together. But even when she has escaped and has started a family with Ned, Evie has a long way to go before her happiness is secured...

    But then she falls for Timothy Durkin, a wealthy Oxford student…Following her heart, Hannah sacrifices everything she holds dear and follows her new husband to Oxford. But will her new life of luxury be everything she expected - or will she find that once a coal miner's daughter, always a coal miner's daughter..?

    The death of her mother and the increase in air raids leaves Ellie alone and in grave danger. It’s not long before she is forced to leave her beloved Liverpool behind and cross the Mersey to seek refuge in the countryside.But as the war takes comforts away, so too does it bring new opportunities; for work, new friendships, and perhaps a little love…It will take all of Ellie’s courage to find her way without her mother’s guidance. But if Ellie can soldier on with grace and dignity, there might just be light at the end of the tunnel.

    While Ally has four children and a cozy home life, Miranda is child-free, married to a millionaire, and living in an astounding show home. Ally gave up trying to compete years ago, so she is shocked when Miranda asks her if she will help provide the one thing that is missing from her perfect life: a baby. Ally has every sympathy for Miranda's infertility problems, but she wonders if she can have a baby and hand it over to someone else, even if that person is her own sister.

    Her adored father often travelled by sea to the Netherlands, leaving her with an unaffectionate mother and only her imagination of a little Dutch girl, Annelise, to keep her company. When devastation ravages her tiny family. Annelise becomes the comforting friend Margriet needs for a long time to come.A few years later, Margriet is blossoming into a kind young lady. Keen to escape her mother and strike out on her own, she forms an unlikely friendship with some of the street children who roam the town. As Margriet acts upon her inspiration to help them, will the troubles of her past break her spirit, or will she be able to overcome them?If you've liked books by Katie Flynn and Dilly Court, you'll love Val's heart-rending stories of triumph over adversity.

    Their short honeymoon results in a baby, but on the birth of her daughter, Joy, Esther's world falls apart. Esther's dying mother confesses to a dark secret that she has kept to herself for twenty years: Esther is not her natural daughter but the result of an exchange of babies after her own child was stillborn. Esther's real mother was being forced to give up her baby to an orphanage by her furious family who were incensed about the unsuitability of their daughter's lover, and Joy's birth makes the reason clear. Harshly rejected by Monty, and with the man Esther believed was her father breathing fire and damnation, she takes her precious baby and leaves everything and everyone she's ever known, determined to fend for herself and her child. But her fight is just beginning . . .

    Behind closed doors, however, she is the prisoner of her controlling father. As she grows up, Charlotte longs for freedom, but her captivating innocence leads her into trouble. Sent to Ireland to hide a shameful pregnancy, she discovers that once again her father has deceived her. She is forced into a convent's harsh and humiliating regime, where she must eventually give up the one thing that makes her life worthwhile.When Charlotte returns to England, older than her years, she chooses to forget the past. Becoming a London midwife, she longs only to help other women at this hardest and most joyful moment in their lives. But her deep compassion, and desire to prevent anyone else suffering the same horror she did, leads her into a darker and more dangerous place.

    Spanning from 1839 right through to 1894 the incorrigible Flashman fears all evil and when it comes to voluptuous queens and princesses he has be known to waver from his mission. Filled to the gunnels with escapades of unwavering excitement THE COMPLETE FLASHMAN PAPERS will quench even the most ravenous appetite for Flashman.

     Liverpool, 1901. The Tempest family is all but destitute, barely able to put food on the table. When Florrie falls ill with pneumonia and Arthur is imprisoned after a drunken fight, their thirteen-year-old daughter Lizzie finds herself parentless, desperate and alone. Despite her young age, Lizzie has spirit and determination, and she knows that she must find work to keep herself off the streets. In a stroke of luck, she gets a job in the match factory, and foreman George Rutherford takes her under his wing. A new home with the Rutherfords promises a safe haven, but the years ahead will be far from trouble-free. And when Lizzie gives her heart, how can she be sure she has chosen a better man than her own father?

    When she tells her parents of her plans to follow her dream of becoming a doctor instead of marrying and having children, her mother refuses to acknowledge her wishes, seeing her decision as an embarrassment to the family.Meanwhile, in a poorer district of Dundee, Rosie Nesbitt lives a difficult life with her mother and siblings in a house that is too small for all of of them. Equally intelligent, Rosie decides that she wants to become a doctor and create a life for herself that is better than the one she has had growing up. She, too, faces issues - albeit different ones from those of Lucy - and she and her family must fight and make sacrifices for her to receive the education she needs. As the two girls' paths cross, their chosen career isn't the only thing they have in common. They first meet at a party hosted by Kier Anderson-Howard, a potential husband for Lucy, but an eligible man who has his sights set on Rosie.As war approaches, Lucy's and Rosie's lives become complicated by love and loss, and the paths leading to their goals testing their resolves to the limit.