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"For the young women living in Boston's North End in 1908, the Saturday Evening Girls Club is an escape from the drudgery of daily life. For Caprice, Ada, Maria and Thea, it's the one time each week the friends can be together. They support each other's...
"1768, London. A foundling risen from poverty and now running her own successful dressmaking business in the heart of society London, Miss Charlotte is a remarkable woman, admired by many. She has no need, nor desire, to marry. The people she values most...
"Jenny Trelawney is no ordinary thief. Forced by poverty to live in the forest, she becomes a successful highwaywoman - until her luck runs out. Transported to Australia, Jenny must tackle new challenges and growing responsibilities. And when famine hits...
"A lost child, a family divided, the bitter backdrop of war - the ingredients in this story, set in 19th century France. After the Franco-Prussian War and the siege of 1870-71, the St Clair family return to Paris, only to be swept up into the terribl...
"Heathcliff has left Wuthering Heights and is travelling across the moors to Liverpool in search of his past. Along the way, he saves Emily, the foul-mouthed daughter of a highwayman, from a whipping, and the pair journey on together. Roaming from graveyard...
"'The hour is late. The candle is low. Tomorrow I will see whether it is my friends or a ship homewards I meet. But I must finish my story for you first. My future, my descendant, my mokopuna. Listen.' So begins the tale of James Pōneke: orphaned son...
"Albert Black, known as the 'jukebox killer', was only twenty when he was convicted of murdering another young man in a fight at a milk bar in Auckland on 26 July 1955. His crime fuelled growing moral panic about teenagers, and he was to hang less than...
"Jean Batten became an international icon in 1930s. A brave, beautiful woman, she made a number of heroic solo flights across the world. The newspapers couldn't get enough of her. In 1934, she broke Amy Johnson's flight time between England and Australia...
London, 1941: A woman is found wandering and injured after an air raid. She remembers nothing of who she is; only that she has lost something precious. As the little boy waits in the orphanage, he hopes his mother will return. But then he finds himself...
Ragley, 1952: Following the death of her father from pneumonia, Lily Briggs, her mother and younger brothers up stakes from Buckinghamshire to rural Yorkshire, hoping for a fresh start. When Lily begins her first year as a teacher at the village school,...
1912, London. Eighteen-year-old Flora Butler has the prized position of lady's maid to young Connie Ogilvie, and is at last able to provide for her beloved parents and four younger siblings. But Flora's life is turned upside down when her mistress's ...
As the Allied troops draw closer to victory, life at Beach View Boarding House is still full of uncertainty. Rosie's plans for her wedding to Ron Reilly are plagued with misunderstandings. Ron takes on a secret assignment just days before they are due...
Sixteen-year-old Irene 'Reenie' Calder lands a seasonal job at Mackintosh's Quality Street factory and feels like a kid let loose in a sweet shop, but trouble seems to follow her around.Beautiful and smart, Diana Moore runs the Toffee Penny line. The...
When they're not working in a West London munitions factory, Liz Beck and her best friend Marg find time for fun and laughter at the local ice rink. Then a couple of handsome American servicemen sweep them off their feet and Marg's dream of becoming a...
Minnie Maddox cares deeply for mothers and their babies - she makes a living by taking in unwanted children and finding them good adoptive homes - and is delighted for her neighbour when she finally becomes a mother after decades of trying. But when the...
"Nora is an unflinching frontierswoman awaiting the return of the men in her life – her husband who has gone in search of water for the parched household, and her elder sons who have vanished after an explosive argument. Nora is biding her time with ...
"Beautiful. Daring. Deadly. The Cuban Revolution took everything from sugar heiress Beatriz Perez--her family, her people, her country. Recruited by the CIA to infiltrate Fidel Castro's inner circle and pulled into the dangerous world of espionage, Beatriz...
Minnesota, 1911. Nilda Carlson is torn between life in the city of Blackduck and spending time with her family back home on the farm. Her employer, Mrs. Schoenleber, gives her more and more responsibility and experience. Still new to America herself,...
"A dark midwinter's night in an ancient inn on the Thames. The regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories when the door bursts open on an injured stranger. In his arms is the drowned corpse of a little child. Hours later the dead girl stirs,...
"Three years into the Great War, England's greatest asset is their intelligence network--field agents risking their lives to gather information, and codebreakers able to crack every German telegram. Margot De Wilde thrives in the environment of the s...
"It's 1924. South Carolina and the region are still recovering from the infamous boll weevil infestation that devastated the land and the economy. Gertrude, a mother of four, must make an unconscionable decision to save her daughters from starvation or...
"London, 1940. Amid falling bombs Emmeline Lake dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent but finds herself acting as a typist for the formidable Henrietta Bird, the renowned agony aunt of Woman's Day magazine. She is astonished to discover that Mrs...
"London, 1936. Inside the spectacular ballroom of the exclusive Buckingham Hotel the rich and powerful, politicians, films stars, even royalty, rub shoulders with the talented dancers from all around the world, who must enchant them, captivate them, and...
"Each day Nur gazes across the waters of the Bosphorus to her childhood home, a grand white house, nestled on the opposite bank. Memories float on the breeze - the fragrance of the fig trees, the saffron sunsets of languid summer evenings. But now those...
"On a cold November day in 1895, a carriage approaches St Thomas Episcopal Church on New York City's Fifth Avenue. Massive crowds surge forward, awaiting their glimpse of heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt. Just 18, the beautiful bride has not only arrived late,...
"1930s colonial Malaysia. Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother's Mahjong debts. Then one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir. Houseboy Ren is racing to...
"A captivating novel based on the story of the extraordinary real-life American woman who secretly worked for the French Resistance during World War II - while playing hostess to the invading Germans at the iconic Hotel Ritz in Paris - from the New York...
"By 1943 the world is in the thick of war and the home-front continues to play a vital role. The Mulligans of San Francisco do their part in the war effort, but hardships and deprivations are taking a toll and each the four Mulligan sisters are tested...
"1849. Darcie and Walter Goodwin join a Shaker village to escape a cholera epidemic sweeping the area. It's meant to be a temporary stay, but Walter is killed in a riverboat accident. With no family and no money, Darcie has little choice but to stay with...
"When the Black Death enters England through the port of Melcombe in Dorseteshire in June 1348, no one knows what manner of sickness it is or how it spreads and kills so quickly. The Church proclaims it a punishment from God but Lady Anne of Develish...
"Severine Kassel is asked by the Louvre in 1963 to aid the British Museum with curating its antique jewellery, her specialty. Her London colleagues find her distant and mysterious, her cool beauty the topic of conversations around its quiet halls. No...
"As the year 1349 approaches, the Black Death continues its devastating course across England. In Dorseteshire, the quarantined people of Develish question whether they are the only survivors. Guided by their beloved young mistress, Lady Anne, they w...
When eighteen-year-old Kitty Carlisle's father dies in 1838, her mother is left with little more than the possibility of her beautiful daughter making a good marriage. But when Kitty is compromised by an unscrupulous adventurer, her reputation is des...
Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a letter arrives summoning him to begin an apprenticeship. He will work for a book binder, a vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice - but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse....
Rainey Bird, Ivy Sparrow and Bea Herron all love to sing. For Rainey, music has been a solace during the upheaval of starting a new life with her mother, away from her abusive dad. Bea finds a confidence when she sings that she cannot get from anything...
Lancashire, 1934. When Tam Crawford is unexpectedly bequeathed some money, he can finally realise his dream of settling down in the beautiful village of Ellindale. Tam knows he can be impulsive - and somehow, within just one day, he has taken on a fiancee...
Growing up in fear of their cruel, drunken father, Olivia Bone and her siblings haven't had an easy start in life. But when Livvie's fiance Joe is killed at Ypres and he bequeaths her his house in Islington, it seems like the Bone family might finally...
As the planes continue to circle over Cliffehaven, Peggy Reilly's sister Doris must seek refuge after a V-1 blast destroys her home. Rita, Sarah and the other residents at Beach View Boarding House quickly find their peace disturbed and it's not long...
Young Maisie Halliday has escaped the grinding poverty of the northern town where she was born to live in the glittering world of professional dancing. At the outbreak of the Second World War, she volunteers as an ambulance driver. Maisie is at the Cafe...
"From the dramatic redbrick facade to the sweeping staircase dripping with art, the Chelsea Hotel has long been New York City's creative oasis for the many artists, writers, musicians, actors, filmmakers, and poets who have called it home-a scene pla...
"Alice may be the president's daughter, but she's nobody's darling. As bold as her signature color Alice Blue, the gum-chewing, cigarette-smoking, poker-playing First Daughter discovers that the only way for a woman to stand out in Washington is to make...
"It is 1914, and New York socialite Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and now Eliza is embarking on the trip of a lifetime to see th...
"A new novel from Lisa See, the New York Times bestselling author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, about female friendship and family secrets on a small Korean island. Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best ...
"The story of the Dionne Quintuplets, the world's first identical quintuplets to survive birth, told from the perspective of a midwife in training who helps bring them into the world ... Reluctant midwife Emma Trimpany is just 17 when she assists at ...
"The Great Rebellion of 1857 was a remarkably bloody business. At a time when Britain's imperial influence in India was sparking brutal clashes on both sides, no one could have expected Rena, an Indian woman, to marry a British officer--nor do they u...
"1788: In a tiny French village, during the waning days of peace, cousins Renee and Laurette live a peaceful, relatively contented life as the shepherdesses under the guardianship of the respectable Emile Gagnon. When Renee is given the chance to work...
"An unforgettable novel from an award-winning author about an ambitious young agent's daring fight to protect blacklisted writers in McCarthy-era Hollywood and her passionate relationship with an African American journalist. Outraged by her grandfath...
"It's July 1921, "flickers" are all the rage, and Irene Van Beck has just declared her own independence by jumping off a moving train to escape her fate in a traveling burlesque show. When her friends, fellow dancer Millie Martin and comedian Henry Weiss,...
"'Love is said to be an involuntary passion, and it is, therefore, contended that it cannot be resisted.' -- George Washington. Unrequited love might have sparked a flame that ignited a cause that became the American Revolution. Never before has this...
"September 1957. Henry and Effie, young newlyweds from Georgia, arrive in Cape May, New Jersey, for their honeymoon. It's the end of the season and the town is deserted. As they tentatively discover each other, they begin to realize that everyday married...
"After the loves and betrayals of The Revolution of Marina M., young poet Marina Makarova finds herself alone amid the devastation of the Russian Civil War--pregnant and adrift, forced to rely on her own resourcefulness to find a place to wait out the...
"Ireland, 1845. To Briana Walsh, no place on earth is more beautiful than Carrowteige, County Mayo, with its sloping fields and rocky cliffs perched above the wild Atlantic. The small farms that surround the centuries-old Lear House are managed by her...
"In Britain's darkest hour, an extraordinary community of women strives to protect the Home Front. When an enemy plane crashes in the village, every one of their lives will change forever ... Return to Great Paxford or join us for your very first visit....
"In 1940, eighteen-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns...
"On a Mississippi morning in 1859, Emily Matthews begs her father to save a slave, Nathan, about to be auctioned away from his family. Judge Matthews is an abolitionist who runs an illegal school for his slaves, hoping to eventually set them free. One,...
"Two brothers were raised to know that Viking blood runs in their veins. But when it comes to passion and rivalry, they're desperate to discover if God's peace can dwell in their hearts. Thor Norgaard, a deaf man in rural Appalachia, once led a secluded...
"In 1901, Mary, an accomplished sharpshooter, can't rest until the man who killed her brother is brought to justice. Journalist Christopher is immediately captivated by Mary--but getting close to someone would threaten to bring his past to light. Can...
"1931, Germany. Bookshop owner Max Beissinger meets Hanna Ginsberg, a budding concert violinist, and immediately he feels a powerful chemistry between them. It isn't long before they fall in love and begin making plans for the future. As their love a...
"A sweeping and stunning novel about what happened to the poet Elizabeth Bishop during three life-changing weeks she spent in Paris amidst the imminent threat of World War II. June 1937. Elizabeth Bishop, still only a young woman and not yet one of the...
"It's the early spring of 1875 in the Cherokee Nation West. A baby, a black hired hand, a bay horse, a gun, a gold stash, and a preacher have all gone missing. Cherokee America Singer, known as "Check," a wealthy farmer, mother of five boys, and soon...
"King Solomon was wealthy and wise beyond measure. He could--and did--have anything he wanted, including many women from many lands. But for all his wisdom, did he or the women in his life ever find what they searched for all of their lives? In this ...
"1736. Violetta has a secret: When she climbs out of her window at The Hospital of the Incurables, the revered music school and orphanage that has always been her home, she can look out over the city and dream. But when she stumbles upon Mino, a violinist...
"Barbados, 1854: Emily Dawson has always been the poor cousin in a prosperous English merchant clan -- merely a vicar's daughter, and a reform-minded vicar's daughter, at that. Everyone knows that the family's lucrative shipping business will go to her...
"When Bartolomeo Scappi dies in 1577, he leaves his vast estate - properties, money, and his position - to his nephew and apprentice Giovanni. He also gives Giovanni the keys to two strongboxes and strict instructions to burn their contents. Despite ...
As war rages across Europe, one young woman faces an impossible choice. Will she save her country - or the man she loves? It is the late 1930s. In London, socialite Rosamund Hanbury is determined to give up the parties and social sets of which she is...
1915. Margaret and Philip Tallis are happily married, have a thriving business and three children, Daisy, John and Lily. At 20, Daisy is an impassioned, headstrong girl, determined to follow her parents' footsteps in Birmingham's jewellery trade. Whi...
Twenty-three year old Katy Speed is fascinated by the house across the street. The woman who lives there, Gloria, is the most glamorous neighbour on the avenue, owning a fashionable dress shop in Bexhill-on-Sea. But who is the woman who arrives in the...
Ella is trying to put the past behind her, but the past won't always stay hidden. The truth is, Ella is hiding from a scandal. A scandal that drove her family out of their beloved Lane End Cottage in the tiny Yorkshire village they had lived in all t...
Lancashire, 1932. Widower Harry Makepeace lives in Manchester with his sickly daughter Cathie, scrimping and saving to get by. But after she suffers a violent asthma attack, doctors advise them to move to the countryside. Harry buys some land and a d...
When her city falls to the Greeks, led by Achilles, Briseis's old life is shattered. Abducted and shipped to the Greek camp on the battleground at Troy, she goes from queen to captive, from free woman to slave, awarded to Achilles as a prize of honour....
Elsie Barker is desperate for a new start after her husband leaves her. When her friend Izzy - who needs to escape her abusive boyfriend - tells her about the jobs going for women as narrowboat crew on the canals between London and Coventry, she jumps...
1865, Nuneaton. For Nessie Carson, life is a constant struggle. When her mother is brutally murdered and her father abandons them, Nessie must keep her family safe and protect her fragile brother, Joseph. Nessie soon attracts the attention of her lec...
After her daughter Arabella passes away, leaving a poor, motherless child in her wake, Nell Almond doesn't think her life can get any worse. But then tragedy strikes a second time and she finds herself widowed, with her husband's quarry to manage. But...
1842. Stranded on Deception Island in the South Atlantic, her whaling captain husband lost at sea, Karina is destitute and desperate. Disguised as a cabin boy, she stows away on a British ship, but Karina is about to get a nasty surprise. As she grows...
"Hannah has put everything into building up her family's homestead in North Dakota. Despite the Great Depression, unpredictable weather, and unforgiving landscape, she and her new husband Jerry stay on even after their Amish friends and family move back...
"Vienna, 1892. At the height of belle époque splendor, Anna Sacher has taken possession of her late husband's hotel, across the street from the famous opera house. At a time when controlling such a business was an opportunity afforded only to men, Anna...
"November, 1941. She's never even seen the ocean before, but Eva Cassidy has her reasons for making the crossing to Hawaii, and they run a lot deeper than escaping a harsh Michigan winter. Newly enlisted as an Army Corps nurse, Eva is stunned by the ...
"Newly widowed and the father of an infant son, Henry VIII realizes he must marry again to ensure the royal succession. Forty-six, overweight, and suffering from gout, Henry is soundly rejected by some of Europe's most eligible princesses. Anna of Kleve,...
In spring 1918, Lieutenant Colin Mabry, a British soldier working with MI8 after suffering injuries on the front, receives a message by carrier pigeon. It is from Jewel Reyer, the woman he once loved and who saved his life--a woman he believed to be ...
Like other well-bred young women in Edwardian England, Lily Throop is expected to think of little beyond marriage and motherhood. Passionate about the stage, Lily has very different ambitions. To her father's dismay, she secures an apprenticeship at ...
Washington Black is an eleven-year-old field slave who knows no other life than the Barbados sugar plantation where he was born. When his master's eccentric brother chooses him to be his manservant, Wash is terrified of the cruelties he is certain await...
1938: Eighteen-year-old Sidney Chambers is dancing with Amanda Kendall at the Caledonian Club. No one believes, on this golden evening, that there will be another war. Returning to London seven years later, Sidney has gained a Military Cross, and lost...
It is 1928. Matilda Simpkin, rooting through a cupboard, comes across a small wooden club - an old possession of hers, unseen for more than a decade. Mattie is a woman with a thrilling past and a chafingly uneventful present. During the Women's Suffr...
It is 1938 and the threat of war looms on the streets of London. But, when the lights go down in the cinema aisles, usherette Daisy Blake is transported to a world of glamour and romance. Daisy falls in love with the handsome organist, Al Dawson. Then...
Lancashire, 1931. Finn Carlisle was devastated when he lost his wife and unborn child a few years ago, and has been travelling ever since. Just as he is ready to settle down again, his great-uncle dies and leaves everything to him, including Heythorpe...
Gosport, Hampshire, 1943. Ruby has been living and working at the Point of No Return pub since her parents were killed by a bomb. She loves the bustle of the pub; it helps take her mind off worrying about her fiance, Joe, away fighting in France. Singer...
Cliffehaven, May 1944. The tension is rising for Peggy Reilly and the inhabitants of Cliffehaven as planes continue to roar above the town. There seems to be no end in sight to this war, which has scattered her family and brought conflict right to the...
Kate Bratton dreams of more. It's 1914, and her life is mapped out ahead of her: continue working as a maid in the beautiful Woodicombe House, settle down with Luke the gardener and, of course, start a family. Desperate to run away in search of adven...
Following a terrible storm, seven-year-old Lottie is rescued from a shipwreck by local Cornishman Arnie Lanroska. Her clothing suggests she comes from a wealthy family, but Lottie's back bears the scars of a severe beating, and how she came to be on a...
"Eighteen-year-old Laurel Millard, youngest of seven children, is expected to stay home and "take care of Mama" by her older siblings, but Laurel has dreams of starting her own family. Operating a silk loom at the Atlanta Exposition will give her the...
"Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa 14-year-old in 1943 - aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal US resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an ...
"As far as Thea Michener is concerned, it's time for a change. With her husband murdered and her much-anticipated baby stillborn, there is nothing left for her in Ladreville. Having accepted a position as Cimarron Creek's midwife, she has no intention...
"By day, Mary Ballard is lady's maid to Charlotte Walden, wealthy and accomplished belle of New York City high society. Mary loves Charlotte with an obsessive passion that goes beyond a servant's devotion, but Charlotte would never trust Mary again if...
"The Paris Wife meets PBS's Victoria in this enthralling novel of the life and loves of one of history's most remarkable women: Winston Churchill's scandalous American mother, Jennie Jerome. Wealthy, privileged, and fiercely independent New Yorker Je...
Eleven-year-old Billy Clegg and his big sister Peggy disappear from their home in Leeds after a suspicious fire in a local mill. The owner says the children caused it by lighting fireworks on Mischief Night. Their widowed mother Betty, badly injured in...
Wapping, London, 1873. When Carrie Manning's father dies unexpectedly, her family is plunged into mourning. The curtains are drawn, the clocks stopped and with an increasing feeling of dread, Carrie learns that the family's fortunes have floundered. A...
Victoria Wild is only four years old but already knows about heartbreak, having been abandoned by her unwed mother when she was only a baby. Luckily her Aunt Eliza was there to take her in but times are still hard on Pit Lane and while Eliza does her...
A gritty, emotional tale of 1930s Blackpool from bestselling saga author Mary Wood, writing as Maggie Mason. Blackpool, 1932. When Grace's Ma passes away and her Da's ship sinks with all hands, Grace is utterly alone in the world. She's sent to an orphanage...
Based on the hugely popular soap opera, this saga explores the lives of Emmerdale's much-loved families during the Great War and beyond. Can the nation's favourite village keep calm and carry on? World War I rages on and the families of Emmerdale are...
June, 1914: Clara Waterfield is summoned to a large stone house in Gloucestershire, to fill a greenhouse with exotic plants from Kew Gardens and create a private paradise. Yet on arrival, Clara hears rumours: something is wrong with quiet wisteria-co...
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