Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Romance

Jojo Harvey is a literary agent whose star is on the rise. In love with both her married boss and her burgeoning career, not much distracts her. Until she finds herself representing two women who used to be best friends. Used to be....

Lexi wakes up in a hospital bed after a car accident, thinking she's twenty-five with crooked teeth and a disastrous love life. But, to her disbelief, she learns it's actually three years later - she's a super-toned twenty-eight-year-old, her teeth are straight, she's the boss of her department - and she's married to a good-looking millionaire!

Unlike the rest of her family, Maggie Walsh has always done the right thing - that is until the day she leaves her husband and takes refuge with her friend Emily, a screenwriter in Los Angeles - a city where even the palm trees are skinny.

On the outskirts of Nuneaton stands Hatters Hall, home to the mentally insane. One rainy, dismal day in 1857, Maria Mundy arrives there to work. She is ordered to care for Isabelle Montgomery, daughter of an influential land-owner, but it becomes apparent that she has been falsely imprisoned. It’s going to take courage, determination, and resolve - but freedom is always worth fighting for.

Harry Robertson is determined to make the Applemore Hotel a success. As the busy season ends, the builders are ready to get to work. He's closing the doors on the final guests of the year when a chance encounter changes everything. Capricious media star Ivy Winter causes a stir when she arrives in the tiny Highland village with her fiance Ben.

Harriet Poole was shattered when her brief affair with Simon Villiers, Oxford's leading playboy, ended abruptly, leaving her penniless, alone and pregnant. Still hopelessly in love with Simon, she took baby William and buried herself in deepest Yorkshire as nanny to the children of Cory Erskine, a somewhat eccentric scriptwriter. A whole host of visitors began to arrive to disrupt Harriet's peaceful routine: first Cory's estranged wife, Noel, then his brother, Kit, and finally, of all people, Simon....

To the outside world, Electra D’Aplièse seems to be the woman with everything: as one of the world’s top models, she is beautiful, rich and famous. Yet beneath the veneer, Electra’s already tenuous control over her state of mind has been rocked by the death of her father, Pa Salt, the elusive billionaire who adopted his six daughters from across the globe. Struggling to cope, she turns to alcohol and drugs. As those around her fear for her health, Electra receives a letter from a complete stranger who claims to be her grandmother.

Would-be gardener Daisy can't believe her luck when her parents announce they're off on a midlife-crisis gap year, leaving her in charge of their gorgeous garden. After a turbulent few months, a spell of quiet in the countryside is just what she needs. As Daisy wrestles the garden, her feelings for handsome Irishman George begin to take root. But Daisy's heart's desire - her parents' garden - is under threat.... Village life is turning out to be far from peaceful.

Childhood sweethearts Matthew and Katy agree they must never see each other again after they end up in bed together following a school re-union. So all is forgotten... until eight months later when a shock meeting at an antenatal class forces them to confront the fact that Matthew could be the father of Katy's baby…

Bookish, brainy Lady Olympia Hightower should be elated she's marrying the ‘catch' of several London seasons. Her large spendthrift family certainly is! And yet, Olympia finds herself sneaking out the chapel window, in a mad attempt to escape her glorious future as a duchess. Virtue was never a virtue for Hugh Philemon Ancaster, Seventh Duke of Ripley, but even he can see his duty as best man requires him to recapture the fleeing bride, and return her to the bridegroom. But with every one of Olympia’s clever turns, he’s finding it harder to give her up.

Viscount Rawleigh longs for a little diversion, and beautiful young widow Catherine Winters seems like easy prey. But Rex's target is a lady of virtue, and when she roundly rejects his proposal to become his mistress, Rex finds himself faced with a delectable challenge. Catherine knows she must fight the indecent feelings the Viscount arouses within her. But even though she knows one kiss could bring her to ruin, temptation proves an insurmountable foe....

Recently returned from his last case in Ireland, elite forensic psychologist and criminal profiler Dr Alexander Gregory receives a call from the French police that he can’t ignore. It’s Paris fashion week, and some of the world’s most beautiful women are turning up dead, their faces slashed in a series of frenzied attacks while the world’s press looks on. Amidst the carnage, one victim has survived, but she’s too traumatised to talk. Without her help, the police are powerless to stop the killer before he strikes again.

A family pulled apart. A love silenced.... For as long as Briony Valentine can remember she has been soft on Eddie, the boy next door. But their chance of romance is stifled when the Luftwaffe begin dropping bombs on the midlands. Eddie is called up to serve, as is Briony's father, tearing her world apart. As the telegrams arrive, all she can do is pray.

One day, sitting in traffic, Stella Sweeney attempts a good deed. The resulting car crash changes her life. But in this event is born the seed of something which will take Stella thousands of miles from her old life, turning an ordinary woman into a superstar, wrenching her whole family apart. For the first time real, honest-to-goodness happiness is just within her reach. But is Stella Sweeney, Dublin housewife, ready to grasp it?

Liza McCullen will never escape her past, but the unspoilt beaches and tight-knit community of Silver Bay offer the safety she craves for her young daughter, Hannah...until Mike Dormer arrives, and the peace of Silver Bay is shattered. The mild-mannered Englishman could destroy everything Liza has worked so hard to protect: not only the family business and the bay that harbours her beloved whales but also her conviction that she will never love again.

As a young child, Lydia and her sister were sent to live with grandparents they'd never even met. It's a cruel and loveless new world for them and it teaches Lydia to grow up fast. She learns to keep secrets and to trust sparingly. And through it all she suppresses her grief and guilt, believing she is to blame for her mother's death.

June the first, a bright summer's evening, a Monday.... And into the busy, bustling homes at 66 Star Street slips, unseen, a mysterious visitor. As the couples, flatmates and repentant singletons of No. 66 fall in and out of love, clutch at and drop secrets, laugh, cry and simply try to live, no one suspects the visitor patiently waiting in the wings. For soon, as the light slowly fades to dark, everything is going to change....

Liverpool, 1946: the blackout blinds may be coming down, but one family is about to face devastating misfortune. Dora Evans is finally marrying the love of her life, and her dreams of opening a dressmaking business look as if they might come true. With twin daughters on the way, Dora has everything she's ever wanted. But then tragedy strikes: one of Dora's babies dies in infancy, and a catastrophic fire changes their lives forever. Can Dora save herself, her marriage and her daughter?

All the ton agree: there is no one quite like Hyacinth Bridgerton. Fiendishly smart, devilishly outspoken and - according to some, particularly Gareth St. Clair - probably best in small doses. But there's something about her - something charming and vexing - that grabs one and won't quite let go. Gareth and Hyacinth cross paths at the annual - and annually discordant - Smythe-Smith musicale. To Hyacinth, Gareth's every word seems a dare, and she offers to help him out with a knotty inheritance problem he's facing.

As well as Lisa, we meet Hester, Julia, Helen, Caroline and a host of other devastating girls, falling in and out of love, finding and losing (and often finding again sometimes in the most unexpected places) the men of their dreams. Lisa & Co is a sparkling collection of love stories that are both moving and funny and could have been written only by the unique Jilly Cooper.