Showing titles in Women's Fiction

Brittany, 1821. After Grand-mere Ursule gives her life to save her family, their magic seems to die with her. Even so, the Orchires fight to keep the old ways alive, practising half-remembered spells and arcane rites in hopes of a revival. And when their youngest daughter comes of age, magic flows anew. The lineage continues, though new generations struggle not only to master their power, but also to keep it hidden. But when World War II looms on the horizon, magic is needed more urgently than ever - not for simple potions or visions, but to change the entire course of history.

Forty-years old and still reeling from a public and painful divorce, Thalia Blackwood is looking for a fresh start, somewhere far away from her upside down life. When she's offered a new job as the sports therapist for a football (soccer) team, she jumps at the chance. This is just what she needs to leave the heartbreak and shame of Manchester behind, trading it in for the warmth and hopeful vibrancy of Madrid.

Jo Sorsby knows she is hiding from her past when she agrees to look after her uncle’s stationery shop. Spending her days glimpsing the lives of her customers as they experiment with what’s on offer is a welcome distraction from the life she has left behind. Yet far from home, Jo feels adrift... But when she meets Ruth, a vicar running from a secret, and Malcolm, a septuagenarian struggling to write his first book, she realises that she isn’t alone.

Maeve Binchy's best-selling novels not only tell wonderful stories, they also give an insight into how Ireland has changed over the decades but how people remain the same: they still fall in love, sometimes unsuitably; they still have hopes and dreams; they have deep, long-standing friendships, and some that fall apart. From her earliest writing to her most recent, Maeve's work has included wonderfully nostalgic pieces and also sharp, often witty writing which is insightful and topical.

Hope Randall has lived a quiet life. But that peace is about to be broken. When a stranger turns up on her doorstep telling Hope she has a half-sister, her instinct is to turn him away. But Michael Flint won’t give up that easily - he believes Hope’s sister, Connie, is in serious trouble. Connie’s childhood was a world away from Hope’s comfortable upbringing - she’s endured poverty, hardship and abandonment. Connie’s future doesn’t look much brighter.

At her dying mother's bedside, Rebecca Bayliss is shattered to learn of a family she never knew existed. Determined to find them, Rebecca journeys to Boscarva, a beautiful mansion in Cornwall, to meet a family torn by passion and greed. From her grandfather Grenville Bayliss, who is hiding an explosive secret, to a handsome cousin whose kisses are dangerously seductive, to sensual craftsman Joss Gardner, whose past hints of intrigue, Rebecca becomes entangled in a family mystery.

1927. Violet Mackenzie-Grant is embarking on her dream of studying at the Edinburgh School of Gardening for Women. She doesn’t yet know that it’s a journey that will take her to Kathmandu and beyond, deep into captivating landscapes and cultures that are worlds away from everything and everyone she’s left behind in Scotland.

Melanie finds herself single again after years of being one half of a couple. Her friends predict loneliness, frustration, disaster. Her parents are convinced she’s a failure in life. But Melanie is overwhelmingly excited to be able to do her own thing – she plans a programme of behaving badly, after a lifetime of behaving properly.

Tor, Cress and Kate have been best friends for as long as they can remember. Through all the challenges of marriage, raising children and maintaining their high-flying careers, they have stuck together as a powerful and loyal force to be reckoned with - living proof that 21st-century women can have it all, and do. It is only when the captivating Harry comes into their lives that things begin to get complicated, as Tor, Cress and Kate are drawn into Harry's dangerous games....

Sandybridge is the perfect English seaside town: home to gift shops, tearooms and a fabulous fish and chip shop. And it's home to Grace - although right now she's not too happy about it. Grace grew up in Sandybridge, helping her parents sort junk from vintage treasures, but she always longed to escape to a bigger world. And she made it, travelling the world for her job, falling in love and starting a family. So why is she back in the tiny seaside town she'd long left behind, hanging out with Charlie, the boy who became her best friend when they were teenagers?

In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the "coolest girl in the world" moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all - beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn.

Solimar Castro Valdez is 18 and drunk on optimism when she embarks on a perilous journey across the US-Mexican border. Weeks later she arrives on her cousin's doorstep in Berkeley, California, dazed by first love found then lost - and pregnant. This was not the plan. But amid the uncertainty of new motherhood and her American identity, Soli learns that when you have just one precious possession, you guard it with your life. For Soli, motherhood becomes her dwelling and the boy at her breast her hearth.

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?

Amanda King and Tess Cuffe are strangers who share the same Georgian house, but their lives couldn't be more different. Amanda seems to have it all, absolute perfection. She projects all the accoutrements of a lady who lunches. Sadly, the reality is a soulless home, an unfaithful husband and a very lonely heart. By comparison, in the basement flat, unwanted tenant Tess has spent a lifetime hiding and shutting her heart to love. It takes a bossy doctor, a handsome gardener, a pushy teenager and an abandoned cat to show these two women that sometimes letting go is the first step to moving forward and new friendships can come from the most unlikely situations.

Helen Forrester's moving story of an English girl and her love affair with an Indian man. Peggy Delaney was a Lancashire girl born and bred, beginning to live again after the heartache of the war. Ajit Singh was a charming young Indian student, shortly to return to his homeland and an arranged marriage. When Peggy and Ajit fell in love, each one knew the future would not be easy. But they found that love could bring two worlds together.

Emma and her friends are about to turn 30, and for Emma it's a defining moment. Defined, that is, by her having achieved none of the things she'd imagined she would. She's never jumped out of a plane, hasn't met the man she's going to marry or snogged anyone famous. As Emma hurtles towards her thirtieth, she discovers, with hilarious consequences, that some of them are trickier to tick off than she'd thought....

Steph has spent decades building a family with her husband, Mal, and putting their family first. She is the glue that holds them all together, and she has convinced herself that she’s been happy...most of the time. But as she stands at her birthday party watching her husband talking about a wonderful marriage she doesn’t fully recognise, the doubts that she has been pushing down for so long begin to grow.

When literature student Anastasia Steele interviews successful entrepreneur Christian Grey, she finds him very attractive and deeply intimidating. Convinced that their meeting went badly, she tries to put him out of her mind – until he turns up at the store where she works part-time, and invites her out. Unworldly and innocent, Ana is shocked to find she wants this man. And, when he warns her to keep her distance, it only makes her want him more.

Four years ago, Jocelyn Butler left her tragic past behind in the States and started over in Scotland, burying her grief, ignoring her demons, and forging ahead without attachments. Her solitary life is working well - until she moves into a new apartment on Dublin Street where she meets a man who shakes her carefully guarded world to its core.

Bec and Kate are sisters, but they couldn't be less alike. Bec lives the domestic dream with her surgeon husband, Stuart, and three perfect children. So why is she so attracted to free-spirited Ryan? Kate's life is hardly a dream. But when she meets Adam - tall, kind, funny - things start looking up. Until she finds out he's been keeping secrets from her. Then there is the incident both sisters are desperate to ignore. Will they discover that some mistakes can't be put right?