Book picks similar to
The Patchwork Girls by Elaine Everest


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The Storm Child


Rita Bradshaw - 2020
    After the young mother dies, Elsie takes the infant and raises her as her own daughter, her precious stormchild.Gina grows into a beautiful little girl, but her safe haven turns out to be anything but. Torn away from her home and family the child finds herself in a nightmare from which there’s no awakening, but despite her misery and bewilderment Gina’s determined to survive.Years pass. With womanhood comes World War II along with more heartbreak, grief and betrayal. Then a new but dangerous love beckons; can Gina ever escape the dark legacy of the storm child?

A Family’s Heartbreak


Kitty Neale - 2019
    And when Henry beats his eldest daughter so badly that she ends up in the hospital, it seems like there’s nowhere left for them all to go. Broken But carpenter Craig has fallen head over heels for Jenny, and he offers her a place to stay. Happy at last, Jenny begins a new life with him, but when tragedy strikes, she’s left to pick up the pieces of both her broken home – and her broken heart. Bereft Desperately trying to make ends meet, Jenny is alone and working round the clock. Will she ever be able to give her siblings the happy home they deserve? Or is the worst yet to come…? The Sunday Times bestseller is back in a gritty family drama, perfect for fans of Nadine Dorries and Dilly Court.

The Long Journey Home


Cecily Blench - 2021
    

The Maid’s Disgrace


Emma Hornby - 2021
    

The Witch of Delft


C. De Melo - 2020
    The audacious scheme requires a marriage between Lisbeth's granddaughter and Hannah's widowed son. Desperate for her grandmother's attention and approval, Mila agrees to wed a man she doesn't know. She begins entertaining doubts when Hannah proves to be a loving mother-in-law instead of the monster her grandmother had described. Mila is thinking and acting independently for the first time, going as far as initiating an illicit affair. Her refusal to commit a heinous act at Lisbeth's insistence results in shocking consequences. With danger looming on the horizon, Mila discovers powers that have lain dormant beneath her grandmother's oppressive shadow. Now, she must learn to use her gift and salvage her only chance at happiness. Holland's Golden Age comes to life in this suspenseful historical novel with a touch of magical realism.

The Spitfire Sisters (The Maitland Trilogy)


Margaret Dickinson - 2020
    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.

The Dover Cafe at War


Ginny Bell - 2020
    Overcome with shame, she has never revealed the identity of Donny's father - not even to her own mother.But with World War II just around the corner, soon Marianne's past catches up with her. And suddenly the lives of the Castle family become a lot more complicated.Will the secrets from her past destroy their future?

The Cruel Romance: A Novel of Love and War


Marina Osipova - 2016
    With only moments left together, she places a cross around her beloveds neck and reluctantly releases him into a cruel world where nothing is certain, especially whether she will ever see him again.Days later, Germans invade her village and take over her tiny house. Serafima and her mother must comply with orders, endure abuse, and stay put, or their village will be annihilated.As World War II intertwines Serafimas and Vityas life with that of a young German violinist and a Russian intellectual, their destinies are irrevocably altered. Can they rise to the challenge of agonizing moral choices and learn to forgive and love again?

Soul Sisters


Lesley Lokko - 2021
    Kemi was educated in Britain alongside Jen and the girls could not be closer; nor could they be more different in the paths they take in life. But the ties that bind them are strong and complicated, and a dark family secret exists in their joint history.Solam Rhoyi is from South Africa’s black political elite. Handsome, charismatic, charming, and a successful young banker, he meets both Kemi and Jen on a trip to London and sweeps them off their feet. Partly influenced by her interest in Solam, and partly on a journey of self-discovery, Kemi, now 31, decides to return to the country of her birth for the first time. Jen, seeking an escape from her father’s overbearing presence, decides to go with her.In Johannesburg, it becomes clear that Solam is looking for the perfect wife to facilitate his soaring political ambitions. But who will he choose? All the while, the real story behind the two families’ connection threatens to reveal itself – with devastating consequences . . .

I'll Be Seeing You


Rosie Archer - 2021
    Three women become friends when working in their local picture house. When life is so tough for everyone, a trip to the pictures is the perfect way to escape, to dream of romance and hope for the good things peace will bring.It is 1943 on England's war-weary south coast where the conflict seems never-ending. After the heartache of the previous year, Connie Baxter now appears to have everything a girl could want. There is Ace, a man who loves her. She enjoys an enviable lifestyle despite the deprivations of war. She has friends and a job she adores as an usherette at the Criterion cinema. But appearances can be deceptive and Connie is struggling in more ways than one.Then, to compound Connie's problem, her nemesis, Cousin Marlene, returns home. Secrets come to light, revealing jealousies that could shatter Connie's world once more, and Connie realizes that Ace isn't the man she thought he was.In the darkest days of war, the glamour of movies and their stars can lift the bleakest of moods, while friends make the good times better and the bad times bearable.

Sing Them Home


Pam Weaver - 2018
    A German aircraft crashes into a house in Worthing, and causes complete devastation to the local community. Three strangers meet for the first time that day – Nancy, Beth and Val. Val’s little girl Sally has been hurt in the crash and is rushed to hospital. As she comes through her ordeal, she finds her mother and her two new ‘aunties’ by her bedside. The three new friends quickly bond over shared experiences; all their husbands are overseas in the fighting forces. They also have the same love of singing and soon form The Sussex Sisters, Worthing’s answer to the Andrews Sisters, to boost morale in in dance halls and canteens all over the south coast.When D-Day finally arrives, it’s the promise of a brighter future they have all been longing for. But the men that return home are altogether different from the husbands they waved off. How will they respond to their wives’ new-found fame? How will the women live alongside these distant, damaged men? With secrets, revelations and surprises on the horizon, the friends will need each other more than ever.

Woman of Mettle


Linda Caddick - 2015
    Safe in her small agricultural community, the recent outbreak of persecution against the 'followers of the Way' in Jerusalem is distant enough not to affect her, and she is determined to keep it that way. Little does she know, she is about to walk through the fire. How much is she prepared to suffer on behalf of another? Things get dangerous when an ambitious young man crosses her path, especially as he holds the key to her future. To survive, she must employ all her feminine wiles. In spite of her imperfect pursuit of the Master, his exceeding grace sustains her in her darkest hour. But when it's all over, she is yet to find out whether love still remains.

The Air Raid Girls


Jenny Holmes - 2021
    Meet the Air Raid Girls: three young women keen to do their bit during the Yorkshire blitz.Connie's life has taken an unexpected turn since her husband died - she's living at home and working in the family bakery - but night shifts as an ARP Warden give her a firm sense of purpose.Her younger sister Lizzie is eager to play her part too, perhaps as an ambulance driver. Her fiance refuses to support her decision... but does he really know what's best for her?Twenty-year-old Pamela has led a sheltered life, but when her family's home is destroyed in a raid she must learn to stand on her own two feet - helped by new friends.As bombs fall and fires rage, the young women face the destruction of everything they've ever known. Can their fighting spirit prevail? And what of their families and the men they love?A thrilling and heartwarming new story of friendship, love and duty in wartime by the author of The Spitfire Girls, for fans of Elaine Everest and Rosie Hendry.

A Sprig of Lavender


Susan Ralph - 2012
    Since her viscount father passed away, the family’s resources have dwindled, and she dreads becoming a destitute spinster. But when she’s invited to the Duke of Mumshire’s country estate—where she’ll be considered for the heir’s hand—hope returns.A trip to the country will also take her mind off the crime she’d witnessed at the last event of the season—an unbearably handsome stranger stealing a lady’s purse. Catherine and the thief locked gazes in the middle of the act, and while she was quickly been swept away by the crowd, later that night she was introduced to the thief, Henri LaFleur. Now he knows her name and can force her silence.Catherine shakes the memory…until LaFleur shows up as a fellow guest at the Duke of Mumshire’s estate. This time, though, she finds herself terribly, inexplicably drawn to this thief. But is LaFleur who he seems?

Born a Workhouse Baby: Victorian Romance


Dolly Price - 2021
    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.