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Find out moreStories from the heart. This category combines Romantic Fiction with Sagas and Romance to create a collection of lovely tales. From rags to riches stories to tales of tight-knit communities, this carefully curated collection is bound to have the perfect match for you, and as the Beatles said, ‘love is all you need’.
1950s South London. There's heartbreak and tragedy for young Daisy Bacon in working class South London. When her mother Judith is run over and killed outside their house, Daisy retreats into a world of silence. Blaming herself for the accident, the girl is unable to utter a word. The happy family home becomes a prison, with her stepmother Vera as the cruel jailer. It is cousin Lizzie, who will always remain a child, who brings sunshine back to Daisy's life. However, only when Henry Bacon discovers his new wife's shocking secret does Daisy herself find true happiness, and in a way that she could never have anticipated...
Meet the Reading Group: forever friends you can count on in good times and bad. No topic is off-limits: books, family, love and loss . . . and don't forget the glass of red! Grace, Anne-Marie, Kate, Jojo and Serena couldn't be more different, but each month they meet in Serena's cliff-top cottage to discuss a good book - oh and their lives, which are stranger than fiction. Or are they?
November 2017 Book of the Month A sharp, edgy, yet lovely romance for young adults. Hildy and Paul are paired in a college psychology study about relationships. They are asked 36 questions over the course of the story, and through their answers begin to learn about each other and themselves. As the sparks began to smoulder and then fly we discover heart-ache and strength in unexpected places. Vicki Grant uses various methods to tell the story, including drawings, texts and instant messages. This form of communication ensures the story is quick witted and bounces like a tennis match between Hildy and Paul. The other characters, including a certain fish remain in the background, yet set the scene and give flesh to the main pair. ’36 Questions That Changed My Mind About You’ is an extremely readable and satisfying romance full of spark and attitude. ~ Liz Robinson
I love short stories, they have the power to give us a fleeting, yet memorable glimpse into other lives. Lives of strong, beautiful characters as they face the challenges that life throws at them, each in search of a little piece of happiness. This collection from Jojo Moyes manages to do that perfectly. They are light and yet there is an underlying significance about them that resonates, that we can relate to. The characters are likeable but not without their flaws and in this Moyes expertly gives them a realistic, human touch. As each of us can be, they are vulnerable, feel pain, sorrow, disappointment, love, happiness and have their own difficulties to overcome. This was a real treat to read. The stories were of variable length yet enough for me to learn a little from each shared experience. I locked myself away in the bathroom and before I knew it the bath water was cold and I resembled a prune, so absorbed was I in these wonderful stories. Another delightful treat from Jojo Moyes. Find yourself a quiet spot and enjoy. ~ Shelley Fallows
Gorgeous, successful...and attached, Connor is just as spirited as Indigo. She's determined to resist his advances, but it's only a matter of time before sparks start to fly. Will she risk putting everything she's worked so hard for on the line for Connor? Because as the temperature rises, it will soon become clear that someone is trying to sabotage Indigo's efforts from the inside. Things are hotting up, and there's everything to play for...
Three short stories with the link the Cornish village of Pendruggan. Fern has used characters from her previous Cornish novels so those familiar with her work will feel at home. Those new to her work are not left to flounder for sufficient back story is given. The first, A Cornish Carol, is a modern day Christmas Carol, this is followed by The Beach Cabin where a London married couple sort out their lives and The Stolen Weekend closes the book. It tells us of a couple of female friends escaping to London but missing the events of the village. Warm, funny and engaging the collection is perfect with on a cold winter evening, to be transported to the sun, golden beaches and a lovely welcoming group of individuals.
This feel-good festive feast is the perfect stocking filler for those who yearn for the magic of a good old yuletide miracle. When Anna arrives at remote Wynthorpe Hall to work as companion to its eccentric owner, she’s one of life’s confirmed Christmas humbugs. Every year, for almost twenty years, Anna’s “longed-for gift of working every day of December” has been granted, due to a diligent search she begins “when the first leaves fall in autumn”. This year, Anna’s new workplace has an immediate emotional effect. On first glimpsing the building, she shudders “as something deep within me seemed to stir and shift”. Then, when she’s shown to her room, Rose Room, with its four-poster bed and roaring log fire, she’s transported back to a memory and tempted to wonder if some serendipitous magic might be at play. But, while Anna soon feels like she’s been part of Wynthorpe Hall for years, life’s not entirely a bed of roses, for the return of the household’s youngest son threatens to throw her off-course, along with opening a Pandora’s box of giddy possibilities for them both. Packed with plenty of passion to keep the cockles warm this winter, this is the perfect Christmas comfort read for fans of Jenny Colgan, Carole Matthews and Sophie Kinsella. ~ Joanne Owen
Looking for Christmas magic, romance and sparkle? Then stop right here as ‘Moonlight over Manhattan’ offers all of this and more. Dog walker and exceedingly shy Harriett challenges herself to face her fears, and finds herself in more than one sticky situation during the month of December. Dr Ethan Black agrees to look after exuberant Madi the dog, but he's taken on so much more than he bargained for. Sarah Morgan knows how to capture your heart, and I do love her stories that are brimming with friendship and romance. Characters from previous books step in and out of the pages, and potential new ones are introduced. ‘Moonlight over Manhattan’ gathers you into a warm hug and invites you to settle down, make yourself comfy, and step into its delightfully warm and engaging pages. ~ Liz Robinson A message from Sarah Morgan Dear Reader One of my favorite quotes (and I’ve used it in the front of this book) is from Eleanor Roosevelt, who said ‘do one thing every day that scares you’. That quote is perfect for the heroine of this story. Harriet is a twin, and she is the shy twin. Life wasn’t easy for her growing up and now her confident twin sister has moved out of their apartment, she is forced to make a new life for herself. And it’s hard. She knows she has to push herself out of her comfort zone, and so resolves to do one thing every day that challenges her.Like most people, Harriet is a mixture of strength and vulnerability and I loved watching her grow in confidence and find her own path. As some of you know, I wrote a number of medical romances before writing longer books, and I still can’t resist a sexy doctor. So my hero in this story, Dr. Ethan Black, works in the emergency department (as I did, many years ago before I changed careers and started writing stories while wearing my pajamas.) He is my favorite type of hero – strong, kind, smart and patient. I don’t blame Harriet for falling in love with him (I hope you do too!), but in the end loving Ethan becomes her greatest challenge of all.This is a story about pushing the boundaries. It’s about courage, friendship and of course romance, all against the snowy, sparkly backdrop of New York City. I hope you love it. Sarah xxx
This latest novel from Josephine Cox gets straight to the heart of family life and the dramas that surround them. What begins as a gentle, seaside holiday in Blackpool with friends soon becomes a distant, cherished memory for Marie. A time when life was happy and simpler made up of a loving family and good friends. Yet as time moves on all is shattered and Marie is forced to live with the consequences of one moment that would change her life forever. Years later she returns to Blackpool to try and mend the ill she has done and finally admit to the terrible secret she’s been harbouring for many years. There is much at stake but she feels that the time has come and the truth must be heard. With the wonderful nostalgic setting of 1970’s Blackpool, Cox pulls at the heartstrings as we get to know and love the wonderful, gentle characters throughout and live through their highs and lows until she brings us to the climax of the story. Will Marie lose everything that she has come to love or will her revelations bring her the peace and acceptance she so desperately craves? Fans of Josephine Cox will love this new family drama. ~ Shelley Fallows
From the bestselling author of the Richard and Judy Book Club summer read, East of the Sun, Julia Gregson returns with this compelling love story set in India - perfect for fans of The Tea Planter's Wife.
All aboard for an Agatha Christie-esque mystery set on a ship bound for the distant shores of Australia in 1939. As the world teeters on the edge of another war, working class Lily is about to plunge headlong into a new life. She’s leaving her family and her little room in Hammersmith to work in domestic service in Australia. While she’s on a lowly assisted-passage scheme, once aboard the ship she “feels like a person of substance”, enjoying cocktail parties in the company of flirtatious Edward Fletcher and the decadent Campbells as they stop off at the likes of Pompeii, the Pyramids and Colombo. But, as Lily’s Jewish friend Maria remarks, “on a boat like this everyone is running away from something”, and that certainly turns out to be true when a succession of misdemeanors strike; an assault, a disappearance, and then murder. All in all, this is a scrumptiously entertaining, read-in-one-sitting mystery that fizzes with glamour, romance and intrigue and the sting of an unexpected twist, while also exploring sexual, racial and class prejudices. ~ Joanne Owen
In the late 1800s, left on the steps of a workhouse as a new born, named Sunday to mark the day and subjected to a hard and often cruel childhood, our heroine, as a teenager, catches the eye of the workhouse master. This enrages matron who has designs on the master herself. Jealousy is indeed an evil monster as Sunday will discover. Forced to flee she encounters tragedy and pain, little happiness but then, as this fast-paced, absorbing read should, light and love will shine through for her. It’s predictable and glorious fun, the perfect ingredients for a long, relaxing read and an obvious Mother’s Day gift. Fans of this genre will love it. ~ Sarah Broadhurst
We all love a good saga. From Wuthering Heights and Jamaica Inn, to the modern works of authors like Katie Flynn, Katherine Webb and Nadine Dorries, there is something so captivating about the journey of a romantic heroine through an unfamiliar world, where the hearts and desires of all around her form the centre of everything. These stories can take place on grand settings: on the High Seas and foreign lands, or on a small cobbled street in a northern mining town. It doesn’t matter, as the journey of the heart is the most important of all. Get your tissues at the ready and find yourself happily shipwrecked on the ragged rocks of epic romance.