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

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?

Laura and Tyler are best friends who live together, angrily philosophising and leading each other astray in the pubs and flats of Manchester. But things are set to change. Laura is engaged to teetotal Jim, the wedding is just months away, and Tyler becomes hell-bent on sabotaging her friend's plans for a different life.

There was no way multi-millionaire Zach Harper would split his inheritance with a stranger. Even if she was his wife. What had supposedly been a prank Vegas wedding to Kaitlin Saville was very real. The CEO believed he could buy off his bride. However, Kaitlin didn't want money. So he offered her a job, vowing never to consummate their marriage. But some vows were meant to be broken....

Summer 1939: After touring an unsettled Europe to promote her latest book, Romily Temple returns home to Island House and the love of her life, Jack Devereux. But when Jack falls ill, his estranged family are called to his bedside. With war now declared, each member of the family is reluctantly forced to accept their new stepmother and confront their own shortcomings. But can Romily cope with the life that has been so unexpectedly thrust upon her?

Erin Turner and Cristophe Donakis set the bed sheets alight during their scorching affair. But Erin's hopes turned to ash when he unceremoniously kicked her out of his bed. Years later, Erin's world is rocked again when she meets her newest business client.... Cristophe is going to make Erin pay back what he believes she stole.... Little does he know that Erin's about to drop two very important bombshells!

Vita's gift shop would do better if she ran it as a business, not as somewhere to daydream. But she's not one to tell herself off: she leaves that to Tim, her ex. Active, outdoorsy Oliver runs his trees-surgery business as calmly as his home - but his love life is intensely private. When Vita and Oliver's paths cross at a pear tree, there's a chance of something blossoming. As spring turns to summer, both Vita and Oliver are given second chances. Bu will they take them - or walk away?

A regular weekday morning veers drastically off-course for a group of strangers whose paths cross in a London café - their lives never to be the same again when an apparently crazed gunman holds them hostage. But there is more to the situation than first meets the eye, and as the captives grapple with their own inner demons, the line between right and wrong starts to blur. Will the secrets they keep stop them from escaping with their lives?

Marianne is eight years old when her mother goes missing. Left behind with her baby brother and grieving father in a ramshackle house on the edge of a small village, she clings to the fragmented memories of her mother’s love; the smell of fresh herbs, the games they played, and the songs and stories of her childhood. As time passes, Marianne struggles to adjust, fixated on her mother’s disappearance and the secrets she’s sure her father is keeping from her.

Abby Rogers has been on health kicks before - they involve eating one blueberry muffin for breakfast instead of two. When Abby is encouraged to join her sporty best friend's running club - by none other than its gorgeous new captain - she finds a mysterious compulsion to exercise. Then her colleague, Heidi, turns up at work and makes a devastating announcement, one that will change her life - and Abby's - forever.

In her apron and rubber gloves, the woman of the Fifties has become a cultural symbol of all that we are most grateful to have sloughed off. But what if there was another side to the story? In Her Brilliant Career, Rachel Cooke tells the story of ten extraordinary women whose pioneering professional lives - and complicated private lives - paved the way for future generations.

It's 1941 and Britain is at war. For the aristocratic Walsingham family this means their grand home being taken over by the armed forces. But for newcomers Ava, Maudie and Bella, this is a chance for something more. Each is ready to do their part for the war effort and soon become firm friends. But Lord Edward Walsingham seems like he is hiding something. And although he may be clever, he might have met his match in Maudie and the girls....

Abi's left inconsolable when Joseph dumps her, saying they are incompatible. When Joseph returns a box of her possessions, she finds a bucket list of 10 things. What better way to win him back than by completing the list? But Abi's terrified of heights - not ideal when the list includes abseiling down a building. Completing the list is going to need all Abi's courage, but as she heals her broken heart one task at a time, the newly confident Abi might just have a surprise in store....

Kate Madison's children are grown and ready to forge lives of their own. Her daughter Isabelle is a dedicated attorney until she falls for a client she represents in a criminal case.... And then there's Julie, who meets a man who seems too good to be true, for good reason. Justin is a struggling writer who pushes for children with his partner before they're ready. And Willie, the youngest child, makes a choice that shocks them all.... Kate can't keep her children from playing against the odds. The hardest lesson will be that she can't protect them from the choices they make.

Imogen and her friends Meredith and Nicola have had their fill of budget holidays. So when Meredith wins a VIP holiday at Barcelona's hippest new hotel, they plan to sip champagne with the jet set and party. But when the worst crisis of her working life erupts, Imogen has to juggle her BlackBerry with a Manhattan. Between a robbery and an encounter on a nudist beach, the friends stumble from one disaster to the next.

The troubled teenager continues to struggle valiantly against the slings and arrows of growing up and his own family's attempts to scar him for life. In between the ups and downs of his relationship with the divine Pandora and worrying that his genius is going unrecognized, Adrian Mole chronicles the pains and pleasures of a misspent adolescence.

September 1937. Kitty Travers enrols at the Conservatoire on the banks of the Seine to pursue her dream of becoming a concert pianist. But then war breaks out and the city of light falls into shadow.... Nearly 25 years later, Fay Knox, a talented young violinist, visits Paris on tour with her orchestra. She barely knows the city, so why does it feel so familiar? Soon touches of memory become something stronger, and she realises her connection with these streets runs deeper than she ever expected.

Australia, 1946: 650 brides are departing for England to meet the men they married in wartime. But instead of the luxury liner they were expecting, they find themselves aboard an aircraft carrier, alongside a thousand men. On the sun-baked decks, old loves and past promises become distant memories, and tensions are stretched to the limit as brides and husbands change their minds. And for Frances Mackenzie, it soon becomes clear that the journey is more important than the destination....

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?

Married to a soldier who has returned from Afghanistan injured in body and mind, Stella Carey leaves the house every evening. During her nursing shifts, Stella writes letters for her patients to their loved ones - some full of humour, love and practical advice, others steeped in regret or pain - promising to post them after their deaths. Until one night Stella writes the letter that could give her patient one last chance at redemption, if she delivers it in time....

Abigail Foster is the practical daughter, and she fears she will end up a spinster. Facing financial ruin, Abigail and her father search for more affordable lodgings, until a strange solicitor arrives with an astounding offer: the use of a distant manor house that has been abandoned for 18 years. The handsome local curate welcomes them but offers a stern warning: beware of rumours that Pembrooke Park contains a secret room filled with treasure.