Sure to appeal to fans of the hit musical Dreamboats and Petticoats.When Rhonda Fleming runs away from home the last place she expects to end up is at a Jolly's holiday camp. But a chance encounter with a chalet maid at the train station leads Rhonnie to Mablethorpe on a cold winter's day and her life changes for ever.Thrown in at the deep end working for the boss's wife, Rhonnie discovers there's never a dull moment at Jolly's - particularly with staff like Dan around. From the beauty contest by the pool to jiving in the Paradise dance hall and from the rollercoaster at the fair to sitting on a moonlit beach, the holidaymakers are guaranteed to have the time of their lives. But when the boss's son reappears nothing can prepare Rhonnie for what lies ahead...

    Forging her own way in the world, determined Daisy struggles to make ends meet as the country finds itself on the brink of the Second World War.Her fortunes change when she finds solace in the arms of Gerald Mortimer, a handsome cavalry subaltern in the Indian army. Finally, Daisy has found someone to love of her very own. But soon she discovers she’s pregnant and fate was never going to give her an easy ride.Gerald is not all he claims to be and, as he leads her along a path of danger and scandal, Daisy must find the strength within herself to get through her darkest hour.The Daisy’s War trilogyThe Girl from Cobb Street – Book 1The Nurse’s War – Book 2Daisy’s Long Road Home – Book 3Each story in the Daisy’s War series can be read and enjoyed as a standalone story – or as part of this compelling trilogy charting the fortunes of Daisy Driscoll.

    She has managed to avoid their pleas to join the WRENS so far but when a tragedy hits too close to home she finds herself wondering if she's cut out for this life after all.Former housemaid Bella was forced to leave the place she loved when she lost it all and it's taken her a while to find somewhere else to call home. She's finally starting to build a new life but when the air raids begin, it seems she may have to start over once again.East-Ender Frankie's sense of loyalty keeps her tied to home so it's not easy for her to stay focused at work. With her head and heart pulling in different directions, will she find the strength to come through for her friends when they need her the most?Brought together at LAAS Station Seventy-Five in London's East End during 1940, these three very different women soon realise that they'll need each other if they're to get through the days ahead. But can the ties of friendship, love and family all remain unbroken?

    Keep the family together, that's what her old mum always said. Put up and shut up. And that's what everyone else did around there. Essex, 1959. Flo earns her money as a scrubber, cleaning the cruise ships and dreaming of a day when she might sail away from her life in the Dwellings, the squalid tenements of Tilbury docks. Then the Blundell family are evicted from their home.Fred, Flo's husband, finds work at Monday's, a utopian factory town. Suddenly, it seems like everything is on the up for Flo Blundell and her children. Even Jeanie, Flo's sulking teenage daughter, seems to be thawing a little in her shiny new surroundings. But when Flo's abusive husband Fred starts drinking again, he jeopardises the family's chance to escape poverty for good.Flo is faced with a terrible decision. Must she fight to keep her family together? Or could she strive for the life of her dreams - the kind of life she could have when her ship comes in?

    Their Lincolnshire village of Doddington suffered terrible loss and it has taken great courage for the bereaved families to rebuild their lives without their loved ones.When war is declared again, it is Daisy Maitland and her peers who must now take up the fight for freedom. Feisty and a daredevil like her beloved Aunt Pips, who spent World War One on the front line serving with a flying ambulance corps, Daisy had persuaded a family friend to teach her to fly as a young woman. Now her country is at war, she is determined to put her skills to good use, enlisting in the Air Transport Auxiliary. There she forges new friendships – but she never forgets her childhood friend and cousin, Luke, who has joined the RAF as a fighter pilot.As war rages in the skies and on the ground, Daisy, her friends and her family – at home and across the Channel – will find their bravery and strength tested to the very limits in their determination to save their country. And they have learned one of the most valuable lessons of all: true love will find a way.

    Friends, though sympathetic, have moved on, her daughter seems so far away and life just seems to be passing her by. An impulsive moment sees her buying a dilapidated house in Brighton, a place that holds happy memories for her, and soon she is ensconced in a new life in her house by the sea.But these things are never that simple.Caroline's decision is met with outrage and incredulity from those who care about her and at times there seem to be insurmountable obstacles ahead.Can she overcome these difficulties, find happiness in her new life and even leave a little room for love?

    The Secret Mother puts a face on the label Made in China - the bittersweet story of a girl - like millions of others - willing to risk everything.

    Her engagement party is a chance for her and David to finally celebrate their good news. But with obstacles springing up on all sides, there may be more than the dress and venue to arrange before she can consider walking down the aisle. Frances and James are doing their best to ignore their feelings for each other as they organise the school play. Can Frances find a way to let herself love again?Amid all the drama, old friends are always on hand, and when Dottie falls ill, a familiar face comes back to Burracombe to lift her spirits and perhaps change her life.With surprises around every corner, life is never dull in this beautiful Devonshire village . . .

    When Isobel Morton takes over the café in Lichfield’s market square, she has big plans. Soon renamed The Victory Café, with a  menu that delights despite rations, the girls who work at the Vic are swept away by Belle’s lust for life.   Among the regular customers  is a trio of soldiers from the nearby American base and waitress Dorrie Goodman soon befriends them, learning about jazz and romance in the process. But the stifling morality of a Midlands town in the 40s cannot accommodate such a friendship; jealously, hatred and the weight of public disapproval combine to precipitate a tragedy.  It is not until many years after the war that friendship and reconciliation can begin to heal the wounds of the past …Praise for Leah Fleming 'I enjoyed it enormously.It's a moving and compelling story about a lifetime's journey in search of the truth' RACHEL HORE 'A born storyteller' KATE ATKINSON

    How can Emma escape the ties that bind her, to build a life for herself and her child?From the author of The Downstairs Maid(Note: previously published as The Ties That Bind by Linda Sole)

    Moored in an island cove, he meets Stroma Mackay and is captivated by her. He persuades her to write to him in Hamburg, and their correspondence continues until war is declared. Reinhard joins the elite U-boat service, while Stroma serves as a plotter in the WRNS, helping fight the desperate battle against marauding U-boats - the wolf packs. It seems impossible that they will ever meet again . . .

    Growing up in Rotherhithe, they now work in a factory making shell cases to be sent to the frontline. As they Second World War rages on, Dolly dreams of escaping of far-off lands--in particular, America. Excitement at home, however, comes in the from of the American GIs, who break the monotony of factory life and nightly air-raids with music and dancing. Despite her loyalty to her Tony, who is fighting overseas, Dolly feels increasingly attracted to the sophisticated and handsome Joe. And then he proposes...

    Patterson's fundamentally serious but playful literary style. Patterson writes like the love child of Henry Miller and Mary Karr, with all the contradictions that implies -- a philosopher who thinks best over a glass of fine wine; an ex-Catholic still haunted by the image of the Crucifixion; an irreverent political satirist whose patriotism flies the flag of another iconoclast, Thomas Paine. Patterson grew up with a foot planted in each of two worlds -- one in Washington DC, the Capital of the Empire as he calls it, where the wheels of power spin, and one in rural Ontario, where his Canadian mother insisted the family spend their summers. His father, one of the wizards of twentieth century newspaper publishing, introduced him to the city's wheels of money and power, which he would later navigate as an entrepreneur, starting his first business at 20. But those Canadian summers introduced him to a different world - one where a cedar strip boat was better than any car, and where the ghosts of those who'd previously inhabited the family's island house floated out over the water of Lovesick Lake. It is those two worlds that blend in this collection, in reflections both serious and playful, on what it means to be a man, an artist, an iconoclast, a patriot, a lover, as the 20th century rolls over into the 21st.

    When her mother dies, Melissa is offered a home by wealthy Lilian Winterton, but she soon realises Lilian wants an unpaid seamstress. Treated as a servant by the Wintertons, Melissa is befriended by Reenie, a kitchen maid, and they enjoy dressing up in Lilian’s cast-off clothes. Wearing finery, Melissa meets handsome young artist James Pennington, but she runs away, frightened he will guess her true status. Scandal follows and Melissa is unfairly thrown out on to the streets. Can the rags of her life be sewn into riches...?

    But things don't seem so rosy when rationing, evacuation and air-raids start to put this larger-than-life family to the test.When a mysterious young man arrives at the Brogans' local parish church, he provides just the dazzling distraction they need - and for eldest daughter Mattie, the promise of more than she'd ever wished for. But as the pair fall deeper in love, they are drawn into secret dangers, rife on the very London streets they call home.As the young couple race to protect the East End as they know it, can their dreams survive the darkening backdrop of war-time...?