Easterleigh Hall at War


Margaret Graham - 2015
    With its army of volunteers and wounded servicemen, cook Evie Forbes is determined that everyone will be properly provided for, despite the threat of rationing and dwindling supplies. All the while she waits for letters from her fiancé and beloved brother, fighting on the Western Front. Then the worst happens – a telegram arrives with shattering news. And Evie wonders if she’ll have the strength to carry on…

The Gypsy Girl


Val Wood - 1998
    But with the help of Jonty - a young misfit who soon became her best friend - she managed to escape, running away with the fairground folk. She became a horserider and acrobat, travelling all around the country. Her friends became the circus people, and her home the caravans and travellers' tents. Meanwhile, in a great house in Yorkshire, old Mrs Winthrop has never given up hope of finding her daughter Madeleine, who eloped with a handsome gypsy and was never seen again. When her young neighbour sets out to find Madeleine, he discovers the colourful world of the fairs. And there, in the midst of it all, Polly Anna - once the waif from the workhouse, now a fully-fledged gypsy girl. Previously published as The Romany Girl.

All The Dark Secrets


Jennie Felton - 2014
    Turning for comfort to the one man she can trust, she finds a sudden and undeniable passion instead. But any future with Josh Withers seems a betrayal of her past, and Maggie realises the only way to survive is to conceal a very dark secret of her own... *Includes a preview of the next book in the series and bonus material from the author.* Don't miss Jennie's Families of Fairley Terrace series, which began with Maggie's story in All The Dark Secrets and continued with Lucy's story in The Miner's Daughter, Edie's story in The Girl Below Stairs, Carina's story in The Widow's Promise and Laurel's story in The Sister's Secret.

A Mother's Wish


Dilly Court - 2009
    In spite of her own despair, she is determined to protect her brother Tom and her baby son Georgie from Jacob's bullying ways - for she is all they have in the world. But when Jacob hires villainous Salter and his vile wife Sal to run the barge, Effie's life becomes even more unbearable, and Tom is sent packing without a penny to his name. Forced to live on deck with little to shelter her and Georgie from the elements, tormented by the Salters, Effie is driven to desperation. And stealing Jacob's hidden cache of money she escapes with her son. As she begins her frantic search for Tom, Effie vows that whatever happens she will make a home for little Georgie and keep him safe from harm.

A Liverpool Lullaby


Anne Baker - 1998
    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...

The Last Letter from Your Lover


Jojo Moyes - 2008
    When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember nothing-not the tragic car accident that put her there, not her husband, not even who she is. She feels like a stranger in her own life until she stumbles upon an impassioned letter, signed simply "B", asking her to leave her husband. Years later, in 2003, a journalist named Ellie discovers the same enigmatic letter in a forgotten file in her newspaper's archives. She becomes obsessed by the story and hopeful that it can resurrect her faltering career. Perhaps if these lovers had a happy ending she will find one to her own complicated love life, too. Ellie's search will rewrite history and help her see the truth about her own modern romance. A spellbinding, intoxicating love story with a knockout ending, The Last Letter from Your Lover will appeal to the readers who have made One Day and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society bestsellers.

Across the Mersey


Annie Groves - 2008
    Jean’s proud of her honest, hardworking husband and their children, but there’s never a penny to spare. Vi’s equally proud of her husband’s new role as a local councillor and their elegant new house, and has raised her children to expect the best.As war breaks out, agonising decisions must be faced. Should the oldest children enlist? Should the youngest be evacuated? All the traditional certainties are overturned. Then the twins’ own younger sister, singer Francine, returns home unexpectedly and stirs up the past, even in the midst of present danger.This is a tremendous saga of fighting spirit and family closeness, and the belief that even though today is full of destruction and pain, there is hope for a better tomorrow.

If You Were the Only Girl


Anne Bennett - 2012
    But Hitler's troops are gathering and fate has something very different in store for both of them...

Opal


Elvi Rhodes - 1984
    The only nice thing that happened to him was Opal, the small, tough, Yorkshire beauty who married him. But by the time the 20s came, Edgar was on the dole, and Opal was pregnant for the second time. Bitterness began to corrode Edgar's spirit. But Opal was a fighter - she wasn't going to let the times, the drudgery, the poverty destroy her or her family. She started with a 'house shop', just sweets and cotton reels sold from the top of her sideboard, and from then on she didn't stop - for Opal's dream was her own department store and a grand life for all of them...

The Wanton Redhead


Meg Hutchinson - 2006
    Viciously raped, then thrown out of the family home, the girl goes on the run, fleeing her cruel rapist.

Home is Where the Heart Is


Joan Jonker - 1993
    After all, it's twelve years since Edna, their youngest, was born. But when it sinks in that a baby really is on the way, Bill is over the moon and decides that the family should move out of their two-up, two-down house in Liverpool to one with more spacious accommodation. Eileen digs her heels in at first, reluctant to leave the house she loves and friends and neighbours so dear. But a scare early in Eileen's pregnancy strengthens Bill's resolve to provide a more comfortable home for his wife. Before Eileen knows what's hit her, she's installed in a smart home with posh new neighbours. Then tragedy strikes and Eileen must come to terms with a loss far greater than leaving behind her beloved neighbourhood. She tries to put on a brave face, but she can't fool the people who love her, who miss the smile on that round, chubby face and the laughter ringing through her house. They vow to make amends and fate steps in to lend a helping hand...

The Lady Risks All


Stephanie Laurens - 2012
    or keep.

The Colours of Love


Rita Bradshaw - 2015
    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 . . .

The Stanford Lasses


Glenice Crossland - 2006
    They lost. They lived. In the small Yorkshire town of Cottenly - dominated by the steel works and surrounded by beautiful countryside - Isaac Stanford lives with his wife Emily and their three lovely daughters, known locally as the Stanford lasses. Alice, the eldest, lives only for her work as a secretary and chapel on Sunday. Fair and loving Lizzie is content with her job making umbrellas - until she falls in love with George Crossman and all she desires is to be a wife and mother. And headstrong Ruth, the merry one, is intent upon marrying handsome charmer, Walter Wray, despite warnings from friends and family. Already emotionally damaged by a traumatic childhood, Alice struggles to lead a normal life. Poor but happy with her ever increasing family, with the onset of war, Lizzie faces the threat of losing all she holds dear. And Ruth soon realises she has made a terrible mistake in her marriage as she becomes trapped in a life of poverty and violence. As the years pass each sister is forced to confront her greatest challenge ...

Lizzie's Secret


Rosie Clarke - 2016
    A gritty, heart-warming and wholesome drama about two girls united in friendship and tested in love. Perfect for the fans of Katie Flynn and Nadine Dorries. Lizzie Larch is a twenty-year-old hatmaker in London's east end. She is happy and popular, but she carries a secret. Seven years ago she was viciously attacked, and recovered in a private sanatorium where she miscarried a child. Lizzie has no memory of the night of the attack, but secrets cannot stay secret for too long. When she starts courting her boss's nephew, shocking revelations surface, and threaten to destroy their new-found happiness. Set in the East-End of London at the dawn of World War II, Lizzie's Secret is about how ordinary people learn to survive - and triumph - through hardship and tragedy.