Showing results by publisher "Avon" in Family Life

This year, Lottie is hosting one last big family Christmas at the home she grew up in - just like her Nana would have wanted. But when her relatives descend on the old manor house, Lottie gets more than she bargained for.

Meet Frankie: fifty, divorced and getting back on the horse. After leaving Twatface – her husband of twenty years – she's starting again from scratch. And when her son also flees the nest for university, Frankie decides it’s time to throw herself back into the dating game with a vengeance. On best friend Bel's recommendation, Frankie signs up to two dating apps: one for love, another for casual hook-ups. However, as she navigates this new frontier of catfishing, kittenfishing, DILFs, GILFs and everything in between, she realises the whole dating thing has changed quite a bit.

1966: In London, Jackie Collins’s racy The World is Full of Married Men hits bookshops and launches her career. In New York, Jacqueline Susann’s debut novel Valley of the Dolls is published, and she’s desperate for it to be a bestseller. But neither author is prepared for the price they will pay for begin women who dare to write about sex.

Nell has always known her expiry date. After a psychic predicted her death date twenty years ago, she has lived life accepting she would never see forty – embracing adventure and travelling the world, choosing fun over commitment and laying down roots. So, when the fateful day comes, Nell feels ready. She sends five excruciatingly honest confessions to her sister, parents and past loves, knowing she won’t be around to face the consequences. Then, with her heart laid bare, all that's left to do is check into a glamorous hotel and wait for the inevitable....

As three very different women come together at the house in the olive grove, unlikely friendships blossom and a season of self-discovery begins. Will the sumptuous flavours, sapphire waters and golden sands of Greece give each of them the answers they so desperately seek?

Kate is sick of being taken for granted by her husband Vince. It’s bad enough that she allowed herself to be dragged away from the London life she loved, but now she’s constantly compelled to keep up with the (very smug) Joneses in this small home counties town. She hates it here. What happened to the fun-loving woman she used to be? At almost 50 Kate feels lost, overlooked and like nothing is ever going to change. That is, until she comes home to an unexpected party – one that she has to cater. And that’s it. The final straw. Breaking point.

Welcome to Italy. A place that holds the answer to Zia-Lucia Costa Chalmers’ many questions. Not least, how she ended up with such a mouthful of a name. When Zia discovers that her mother wasn’t who she thought she was, she realises the time has come to search out the Italian family she’s never known. However, as she delves into the secrets of her past, she doesn’t bargain on having to think about her future, too. But with local vineyard owner, Piero, living next door, Zia knows she has a serious distraction who may prove difficult to ignore.

The day Heather, Niamh and Lauren met, they promised to be best friends for life, and that instant connection only grew stronger with their weekly sunrise swims in their stunning local lake. When they left school, they agreed that every year on midsummer’s dawn, they would meet at their old spot and swim together. Now, fifteen years later, the tradition has disappeared in the face of life’s realities. In fact, they don’t speak any more. But this summer, they find themselves back in their Irish hometown and realise this could be their last chance to recapture what they have lost.

Last winter she had a plan. Lucy fell in love with tumbledown Rosemary Cottage as a child. So 30 years on, when she loses her city job and discovers the cottage is for sale, it feels like fate. She'll raise her children in Burley Bridge and transform the cottage into a B&B with her husband. But a year can change everything.... Now Lucy is juggling two children and a B&B, but on her own. Christmas looks set to be their last on Rosemary Lane until she meets James, a face from her past and someone who might offer a different kind of future.

When Frankie’s mother dies, she is sent to live with her aunt Bet in Worthing, Sussex. Life on their farm is happy - for a while. But when World War Two breaks out, Frankie must help her country by signing up to the women’s branch of the British Army. Soon, she meets Romare, an American Doctor who has come to the UK after facing terrible racism at home. But trouble is stirring in Britain, too, and it falls to Frankie to try to protect him. Can love triumph over a history of hate? Or will Frankie and Romare’s love pay the ultimate sacrifice?

In a small town, three mothers wave goodbye to their children at the school gates. Naomi has lived in Exton Cross since she was born, and she knows everything there is to know about everyone. Aleema hates it here. It’s been three years and she’s yet to make a single friend. And she’s sure the other mums whisper about her behind her back. Kelly is an outsider. New to the town, she arrives with nothing but her son—and a dark secret. By the end of the school day, one of their children will be missing. And rumours will swirl that one of them knows why.

My life is a mess. My marriage is falling apart, and I’d hoped the arrival of our baby girl would bring us closer together. Yet, as she grows, I see less of a resemblance to my husband, stirring unsettling questions. I was hoping a visit from my friend, Victoria would bring some stability. With her seemingly perfect life in Spain, she embodies hope for a brighter future. But our reunion has taken an unexpected turn. And when a shock diagnosis shakes our family further, Victoria doesn’t know it yet, but she might just hold the key to saving our family.

Christmas is around the corner, and Alfie and George can’t wait. This year, the residents of Edgar road have come together to put on a festive show and raise money for a local homeless shelter. As December approaches, plans are in full swing: auditions are being held, props are being built, Alfie and George are rehearsing daily and everyone is having a very merry time.

Jess and Laura might be sisters, but they’re very different. Laura is laid-back, eats cheese in bed and takes life as it comes. Jess, meanwhile, is the classic overachiever. They’re family, but they’re not exactly friends. When their mum dies, the sisters struggle to agree on anything, from where to scatter the ashes to whether 'passed away' is an acceptable term. But as life forces them together, Laura and Jess realise: the only way through this is as a team. After all, they’re stuck with each other - and drinking wine is more fun as a pair....

One family home. Three generations. What could possibly go wrong? Carly loves her family. She really does. It’s just that now her three children are grown up, she thought it was her time. Everyone talks about the empty nest and how difficult that can be, but Carly and her husband Frank have often fantasised about it – meals without arguments, conversation without shouting over the sound of the Xbox, holidays planned around the culture not the kids’ club.

Hydra, the picturesque Greek island, is a paradise for most, yet for sisters Ella and Georgia, it is a place where their darkest secrets dwell. And now the time has come for them to confront their past as they return to Greece to scatter their mother’s ashes. Ella is haunted by a love song that was written for her by the man who broke her heart years earlier and she longs to find peace so she can move on with her life.

In 1922, Lady Evelyn Herbert’s dreams are realised when she is the first to set foot inside the lost tomb of Tutankhamun for more than 3,000 years. But the months after the discovery are marred by tragedy, when Eve’s father dies suddenly and her family is torn in two. Desperate to put the past behind her, Eve retreats into a private life with her new husband.

One early October afternoon, 10-year-old Jacob Rossi begins the short walk home from school. But he never makes it. Days later, DCI Anna Tate is called to the scene of a burning building, where an awful discovery has been made. A body has been found, and the label in his school blazer reads: J. Rossi. As Anna starts digging, she soon learns that a lot of people had grudges against the boy’s father. But would any of them go so far as to take his son? And is the boy’s abductor closer than she thinks?

When Judith loses her partner, she loses her life in Malta, too - including the beautiful view from her sun-warmed balcony of the sparkling blue waters of Sliema Creek. Back in England, Judith finds a spare room in her sister’s house where she grew up - but with it comes a whole host of family dramas. Nursing a broken heart, Judith knows she must find happiness again - and rebuild her life on her own terms. Could an island in the sun be the answer she is looking for?

Suffolk, 1944. American pilot Charlie’s second tour is about to draw to a close, but his heart is forever changed when he meets Kitty, a local girl. As love blooms, the pair are all too aware that every perilous mission Charlie flies may well be his last. Suffolk, 2011. When Kitty’s granddaughter and ambitious tearoom owner Amy meets American tourist and photographer Jack, she agrees to show him around in exchange for his photographic talents. The deal quickly grows into an unexpected bond – but when long-buried secrets emerge, neither of their worlds will ever be the same again.