Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Women's Fiction

Mark Knightley is used to women falling at his feet, except Emma Woodhouse- she's like part of the family. But Emma's grown into an attractive young woman, full of ideas for modernising her family business, and when Mark gets involved the sparks begin to fly. Although he's seeing her through totally new eyes, Emma remains immune to his charm. She's never forgotten the embarrassing moment when he discovered her teenage crush on him.

Grace Cabot and her sisters await the shame of losing status and luxuries upon the death of the earl of Beckington. The dire circumstances are inevitable unless Grace's wicked plot to seduce a wealthy viscount into marriage goes off without a single hitch. But once she is discovered in the arms the earl of Merryton, her plan takes a most unexpected twist!

Hidden within the confines of The Royal Institute of Prehistorical Studies, Sybil is happy enough with her work - and her love life. Then to her dismay, her old adversary, assertive and glamorous Helen Hansen, is appointed Head of Trustees. To add insult, Helen promptly seduces Sybil's boyfriend. Betrayed and broken-hearted, Sybil becomes obsessed with exposing Helen as a fraud, no matter the cost. Offbeat and darkly funny, The Snow and the Works on the Northern Line is about things lost and found. It is also a story about love, grief and forgiveness: letting go and moving on.

Recently widowed Venetia Hamilton Hargreaves is left with a huge house, a bank balance to match and an uneasy feeling that she's been sleepwalking through the last fifty years. Determined to live fully again, she embraces life with an enthusiasm and purpose she'd forgotten she could muster. Buying the dilapidated Phoenix Ballroom and with it a drop-in centre and spiritualist church could be seen as reckless, but Venetia's generosity, courage and kindness provide a refuge for a touching cast of damaged and lonely people who find their chosen family.

Alasdair Cynster, known to his intimates as Lucifer, decides to rusticate in the country before the matchmaking skills of London's mamas become firmly focused on him. But an escape to Devon leads him straight to his destiny in the irresistible form of Phyllida Tallent, a wilful, independent beauty who brings all his masterful Cynster instincts rioting to the fore. Lucifer tries to deny the desire Phyllida evokes, but destiny intervenes....

You follow the hidden creek towards a long-forgotten house. They call it Keepsake, a place full of wonder...and danger. Locked inside the crumbling elegance of its walls lies the story of the Butterfly Summer, a story you've been waiting all your life to hear. This house is Nina Parr's birthright. It holds the truth about her family - and a chance to put everything right at last.

Aurora Teagarden is basking in the news of her pregnancy when disaster strikes her small Georgia town: four kids vanish from the school soccer field. Aurora's 15-year-old brother, Phillip, is one of them. When a dead body is found, the local police and sheriff's department comb the county, and Aurora and her new husband, true-crime writer Robin Crusoe, begin their own investigation. With Christmas approaching, Aurora is determined to find her brother...if he's still alive.

The only place Suzanna Peacock finds comfort is her shop, which provides a haven for the misfits in town. But she is forced to confront events of the past and her family that have been haunting her for so long. And she discovers that the key to her happiness may have been in front of her all along....

Jackie loves her family. Sure, her teenage children can be stroppy. Her husband a little lazy. And providing round-the-clock care for her Alzheimer's-ridden mother is exhausting. All Jackie wants is for her children to have brighter futures than she did. So long as Martha, the eldest, gets into university and follows her dreams, all her sacrifice will be worth something...won't it?

Tessa's life as an activist and volunteer worker takes a hit after a fall. At the ripe young age of 69, she's no longer able to live alone and decides to take in two lodgers for free. After the recent death of his brother, Conn is riddled with grief and determined to make amends. A free room seems too good to be true—until he meets the other lodger.

England, 1932: Grace Hamblin, the beekeeper's daughter, knows her place and her future, until her father dies. She’s alone, except for one man who she just can't shake from her thoughts…. Massachusetts, 1973: Grace's daughter Trixie Valentine is in love. But when he has to go home to England, he promises to come back, if she will wait for him. Both mother and daughter are searching for love and happiness, unaware of the secrets that bind them.

1942. Sixteen-year-old Poppy Percival turns up at Trout's clothing factory to start work as a seamstress. Poppy harbours a secret - one from which she is still suffering. But she's not the only one with a secret. Each of her new friends at the factory is hiding something painful. The war will throw their lives into turmoil but also bring these women closer to each other than they could ever have imagined.

Oscar-winning actress Ardith Law is a Hollywood icon. A stunning beauty at sixty-two, her star is as bright as ever. Widowed at a young age by a philandering husband, Ardith is in no hurry to marry again. Her daughter, Morgan, a successful cosmetic surgeon, has always blamed her mother for a lonely childhood while Ardith was away on location, and the relationship remains strained despite Ardith's efforts to strengthen their bond.

Ponden Hall is a centuries-old house on the Yorkshire moors, a magical place full of stories. It's also where Trudy Heaton grew up. And where she ran away from. Now, after the devastating loss of her husband, she is returning home with her young son, Will, who refuses to believe his father is dead. While Trudy tries to do her best for her son, she must also attempt to build bridges with her eccentric mother. And then there is the Hall itself: fallen into disrepair but generations of lives and loves still echo in its shadows, sometimes even reaching out to the present....

Giving up her fiancé and her old life, Tess has moved to the country to start afresh. When she crashes her car into Miles' breakdown truck, they find that they're nearly neighbours yet worlds apart. Despite a suddenly attentive ex- fiancé, she discovers the joys of village life and begins to form a friendship with Miles. Then, just as their relationship deepens, an old flame comes looking for him....

Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. As she follows the case of Meena–a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man–Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one's own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita's own past.

Kayla Sinclair knows she's in trouble when she almost bankrupts herself to buy a portrait of a mysterious eighteenth century man. Jago Kerswell, inn-keeper and smuggler, will take any risk to be with Lady Eliza Marcombe. Over two centuries separate Kayla and Jago, but thanks to a gypsy's spell, their lives become inextricably linked. Kayla finds herself on a quest that could heal the past, but will she find heartache or happiness?

When the world-famous conductor Leo Bruck dies suddenly, the three women who loved him meet for the first time at his graveside. Victoria, his partner of 20 years and mother of two of his children; Maddy, mother of Leo's daughter Phoebe; and 24-year-old Cat. Can these three very different women, whose lives become inextricably bound, break free from the masterful control Leo exerts - even from the grave?

1916: Across the channel, the Great War rages and in London's East End with her husband away fighting, Hannah Loxwood battles with the overwhelming burden of 'duty.' She has sacrificed so much for a husband who may never come home. When she meets Daniel who is thoughtful, intelligent and quietly captivating - Hannah finds herself faced with the most dangerous of temptations. Soon Hannah and Daniel will realise just how precarious their happiness is, as their destiny rushes towards them…

After being jilted at the altar, Zoe Moore flees to Boston, America, where she works as nanny to five-year-old Ruby Miller and her little brother, Samuel. Ruby and Samuel lost their mother in an accident; their father, Ryan Miller, is so wrapped up in his grief that he barely notices his two children. Whatever happened to the loving man she keeps hearing about from his neighbours?