How do you know where you belong? In June 1988, Elizabeth Kelly’s parents think she belongs at home in Ireland. Her boyfriend is certain of it. Unwilling to settle down just yet, she decides to spend the summer in Boston with her college friends. But the next four months change all of them, especially Elizabeth.… Read More »
When her best friend organises a surprise TV makeover, Tessa is horrified. It’s the last thing she needs – her business is on the brink of collapse, her marriage is under strain and her daughter is more interested in beauty pageants than student politics. What’s more, the ‘Greenham Common angle’ the TV producers have devised… Read More »
Jane hasn’t lived anywhere longer than six months since her son was born five years ago. She keeps moving in an attempt to escape her past. Now the idyllic seaside town of Pirriwee has pulled her to its shores and Jane finally feels like she belongs. She has friends in the feisty Madeline and the… Read More »
At almost forty, Clare Donoghue is living child-free and loving it. Then her boyfriend says he wants kids, breaking off their promising relationship. And it’s not just boyfriends: one by one, her formerly carefree friends are swallowed up in a nonstop cycle of play dates and baby groups. So Clare decides it’s time for people… Read More »
Spring, 1915. Katie Crilly gets the news she dreaded: her beloved twin brother, Liam, has been killed on the Western Front. A year later, when her home city of Dublin is suddenly engulfed in violence, Katie finds herself torn by conflicting emotions. Taking refuge in the home of a friend, she meets Hubie Wilson, a… Read More »
Nothing sings as sweetly as love, or burns quite like betrayal Rosanna Menici is just a girl when she meets Roberto Rossini, the man who will change her life. In the years to come, their destinies are bound together by their extraordinary talents as opera singers and by their enduring but obsessive love for each… Read More »
What a lovely weekend for Anne Allen, with Dangerous Waters hitting #1 in the Amazon free book charts! It’s back up to £1.99 now (and worth every penny). As I mentioned last week, the third of Anne Allen’s Guernsey novels, Guernsey Retreat, will (officially) be published on 8 August, but I’m delighted to tell you… Read More »
I’m quite beyond any self control when it comes to downloading books to Kindle, and many of them remain unread – and probably always will, overtaken by all the latest reads that come my way. But I’m so glad I can’t say that any more about the books of Anne Allen. The synopsis of Dangerous… Read More »
Annie Howarth is living a restless life in a restless town. It’s 1987 and for a mining community in South Yorkshire, the strikes mean tensions are running high. Then a murdered girl is found on the moors and the anxiety levels are pushed to a dangerous breaking point. Married to the Chief of Police, Annie… Read More »
This is a story about family life, unfriendly rivalry and flat Victoria sponges Marie Dunwoody doesn’t want for much in life. She has a lovely husband, three wonderful children, and a business of her own. Except, her cupcakes are crap. Her meringues are runny and her biscuits rock-hard. She cannot bake for toffee. Or, for… Read More »
Scars. We all carry them. Some are mere scratches. Others run deeper. At a school rife with bullying, Will and his best friend Luke are involved in a horrific incident that results in Luke leaving. Twenty-five years later their paths cross again and memories of Will’s painful childhood come flooding back to haunt him. His… Read More »
I’m still new enough to blogging about books that I still get an immense thrill when I receive an unexpected package of books from a publisher to read and review – I hope I always will. But in my last parcel from Pan Macmillan, I hesitated when I saw it included Lawless by Jessie Keane… Read More »
What happens when a mother and her daughters are separated; who do they become when they believe it might be forever? 1953, the eve of the Cartwrights’ departure from Malaya. Eleven-year-old Emma can’t understand why they’re leaving without their mother; why her taciturn father is refusing to answer questions. Lydia arrives home to an empty… Read More »
One summer morning, three little girls meet for the first time. By the end of the day, two will be charged with murder. Twenty-five years later, journalist Kirsty Lindsay is reporting on a series of sickening attacks on young female tourists in a seaside town when her investigation leads her to interview funfair cleaner Amber… Read More »
In the early hours of an April morning, Maya stumbles into the path of an oncoming bus. A tragic accident? Or suicide? Her grief-stricken husband, Adrian, is determined to find out. Maya had a job she enjoyed; she had friends. They’d been in love. She even got on with his two previous wives and their… Read More »