Babsey makes sure that her family doesn't mix with the rougher people in the neighbourhood - she considers herself a cut above the local community. When her niece Louisa needs a home - her mother is dead, and her father at sea - Babsey does her duty and brings the girl into the household.But Louisa doesn't quite fit in with Babsey's plans. Although life under Aunt Babsey's roof is comfortable, Louisa is acutely aware of the desperate poverty around her. And, as she grows up into a thoughtful young woman, the harsh realities of love and betrayal, war and death, make her determined to find her own way. Louisa will eventually be made famous throughout her city - known for ever as Liverpool Lou. And she might just find love along the way...

    Studying hard to please them, she earns a place at Cardiff University. Here she is swept off her feet by handsome Gwyn Roberts, but when she becomes pregnant her parents are devastated and turn her from their door. All Gwyn and Sarah can afford are two squalid rooms in the infamous slums of Cardiff and Sarah soon realises she's made a terrible mistake. Gwyn becomes increasingly distant and when the baby dies in infancy, he leaves Sarah with little choice but to fall on her parents' mercy. But just when Sarah is starting to pull her life back together again, she is drawn to the charms of Stefan Vaughan and finds herself in trouble once more...

    Although her father is dead, and her mother works hard, Ellie's grandmother Bridie is always there to provide a welcoming hug when the little girl returns from school. But, one tragic day, Ellie's secure world is suddenly torn apart with the mysterious death of her mother, and Ellie is forced to live with her uncle Mick, a man with a violent temper. As the years pass, Ellie's yearning to know the truth about her mother's death never fades - it even casts a shadow over her blossoming romance with childhood friend, Franco Baldini. For Franco knows more about that fateful day than he dares admit, especially to Ellie. Can their love survive when Ellie longs to uncover events that Franco is desperate to forget? And will Ellie ever find out what really happened to her mother?

    When her father dies, deep in gambling debt, her mother must harden herself to make ends meet, but becomes so hard she has little room left for affection or warmth. Mother and daughter work at the open market in Birmingham, selling second-hand clothes or whatever they can find just to put a little food on the table.But the market has a silver lining: it's there that Rachel makes her first childhood friend, Danny. As they grow older, the friendship grows into something more and their innocent romance gives Rachel the care and comfort she's always craved. But at just sixteen, as World War II breaks out, Rachel falls pregnant. They marry in haste but it isn't long before Danny is called up. Left on the homefront with a new baby and little else, Rachel must scrape by with the other residents of Sparkbrook. But if Danny ever makes it home, will he be the same boy she loved so fiercely? And if Rachel can sustain the family until then, will she end up as hard-hearted as her own mother? War Babies is a moving and insightful novel about hardships on the homefront and how the war changed everybody it touched...

    Then Alice Weatherly turns Rose's world upside down. The young heiress longs to kiss Captain Charlie Summers goodbye so she takes Rose to Liverpool's Lime Street station and into the heart of Charlie's brother Harry.

    She stifles her love for handsome Johnny, and works as a maid for Jeffrey Banks and his daughter, Cicely. When evil Luke Arnold woos Cicely, she starts making hats. But greedy Luke steals from his father's business, prioposes to Cicely for her father's foundry, orders the Miller father killed, and continues to threaten the lives and livelihood of all the Miller family.

    Her husband is away fighting in the Second World War and she has regretfully sent her two young children away to her parents in Galway, knowing that they will be safe there. She's grateful for her job in munitions but not so happy when that means getting home in the blackout, dodging the bomb damage.Then Lizzie is attacked on one such journey. She comes around battered and bruised, unable to remember the full extent of the attack – but she fears the worst, and is right to. Turning to her family in desperation, she is told she has brought them nothing but disgrace. Yet help is at hand, from the most unlikely place…

    With so many young men lost in the Great War, including her own brothers, her life is empty and her future without hope. Until, desperate to break out of her mundane existence, she decides to take up the position of nursery maid in the London home of acclaimed playwright Harold Berridge.Befriended by the actress Maud Ling and thrown into the glamorous but fickle world of cinema, Phyllis falls passionately in love with Maud’s young brother Teddy. But Teddy’s heart lies elsewhere, and when tragedy strikes the Berridge household a heartbroken Phyllis is forced to leave.Six months later, Phyllis has started to rebuild her life but her world is turned upside down once more when is invited to a party at Maud Ling’s film studios. For there she falls under the spell of the charming but devious American actor, Denver Towers, with disastrous consequences. . .

    Or so she thinks. An unimaginable betrayal by those she loves causes her to flee her home and family one snowy night. Crushed and heartbroken, Ruby vows that despite the odds stacked against her she will not only survive, but one day will show the ones she left behind that she’s succeeded in making something of herself. Brave words, but the reality is far from easy. Dangers Ruby could never have foreseen and more tragedy threaten her new life, and love always seems just out of reach. Can a happy ending ever be hers?

    Hollinthwaite, however, has other ideas and when he forces the two to part Rob is sent away to school while Alena must start work in the local bobbin mill. Life is hard and her love for Rob severely tested. Torn between two men, her indecision is heightened by the knowledge of a tragic secret. Dolly Sutton has problems of a more intimate nature, while shy and unassuming, Sandra Myers finds herself an unlikely campaigner against Hollinthwaite’s destructive plans for the village when he ruthlessly sacks the man she loves.

    Her father Tom, crippled in the fighting during WWI, has been left a broken and bitter man; her elder brother Vinnie is in serious trouble with the local hard man; her two younger sisters are in danger of being taken into care, and her sweetheart Danny is heading for Australia to seek his fortune. Determined to keep her family together, yet unable to escape the poverty and degradation of the slums, the heartbroken Lizzie is tricked into marriage by Danny's unscrupulous brother, Frank. Will she ever find the strength to protect her family from the underworld thugs who monopolise the Isle of Dogs? Can she escape her increasingly unhappy and violent marriage? And will she ever be reunited with her one true love, Danny Flowers?

    . . Life is tough on the cobbled backstreet courtyards of Abbey Street, Warwickshire, in the 1840s: boys are destined for the pit and girls for the mill. Despite this, clever, feisty Maryann is happy there - until her mother dies. Her family collapses, leaving Maryann coping with everything, exhausted and lonely. Especially as Toby, the boy she is set on marrying, insists they wait.When things are at their bleakest, Maryann is offered a lifeline: a position as nanny to the daughter of the mill owner, Wesley Marshall. Though the house is filled with secrets and heartache, there is kindness, too, and to Maryann's surprise she grows close to Marshall. But their relationship has not gone unnoticed and it threatens to unleash a world of problems on them all . . . A warm and captivating story of fighting for love in the face of adversity, from much-loved author Rosie Goodwin.

    . . From birth, Polly Harper seems destined for tragedy. Raised by her loving grandparents on Paradise Farm she is unknowingly tangled in a web of secrecy regarding her parentage. When she falls in love with Tobias, the wealthy son of a local landowner of disrepute, her anxious grandparents send her to work in a dairy. There she becomes instantly drawn to the handsome Matt Dinsdale, propelling her further into the depths of forbidden romance and dark family secrets. But tragedy strikes, Polly is forced to confront her past and decide the fate of her future. Will she lose everything, or will she finally realize that her roots and love lie in Paradise?

    War, secrets and betrayal cast a shadow over the Maclarens from the battlefield to the drawing-room. Young Andrew Maclaren, a brave yet sensitive soldier, faces the danger of conflicts in India and China. He must choose between the regiment he serves and the woman he loves. Willie Bruce, Andrew's childhood friend and fellow soldier, discovers loyalty is not always rewarded. Maud Westburn, beautiful but damaged, is the woman who loves them both. Will this love tear a family, and a regiment, apart? A sweeping saga about passion and honour, and the senseless brutality of war.

    Charlotte is ecstatically in love with Geoffrey; Peter prepares for the day when he will inherit the family distillery, while Andrew, gregarious and fun-loving, is already turning heads and hearts. Nell, the youngest, contents herself with daydreams of a handsome highlander. The Great War, however, has no respect for family life. As those carefree pre-war days fade, with death and devastation brought in their wake, the Drummonds are plunged into the horrors of the trenches in France. Yet those who survive discover that love can transcend class, creed, and country.