by Pamela Evans (2013)
For West London sisters Sal and Ann Storey, 1957 should have been one of the happiest years of their lives, but their world is turned upside down when two family tragedies strike in quick succession. Left to run the family's sweetshop with their grandmother, Sal's new-found flair for business doesn't make up for everything she and Ann have lost. When Sal meets and falls in love with taxi driver Bob Beck, her luck seems to have changed. Bob becomes her one constant, particularly when Ann finally uncovers her long-held guilty secret, which could have explosive consequences for the sisters...
Rachel Johnson
Munich, 1936. She doesn't know it, but 18-year-old Daphne Linden has a seat in the front row of history. Along with her best friend, Betsy Barton-Hill, and a whole bevy of other young English upper-class girls, Daphne is in Bavaria to improve her German, to go to the Opera, to be 'finished'.
Beatriz Williams
Memorial Day, 1938: New York socialite Lily Dane has just returned with her family to the idyllic oceanfront community of Seaview, Rhode Island, expecting another placid summer season among the familiar traditions and friendships that sustained her after heartbreak. That is, until the Greenwalds take up residence in Seaview. Nick and Budgie Greenwald are an unwelcome specter from Lily's past: her former best friend and her former fiancé, now recently married -- an event that set off a wildfire of gossip among the elite of Seaview, who have summered together for generations. But the ties that bind Lily to Nick are too strong and intricate to ignore, and the two are drawn back into long-buried dreams, despite their uneasy secrets and many emotional obligations. Under the scorching summer sun, the unexpected truth of Budgie and Nick's marriage bubbles to the surface, and as a cataclysmic hurricane barrels unseen up the Atlantic and into New England, Lily and Nick must confront an emotional cyclone of their own, which will change their worlds forever.
Colleen McCullough
Everyone knows the story of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet in "Pride and Prejudice." But what about their sister Mary? At the conclusion of Jane Austen's classic novel, Mary, bookish, awkward, and by all accounts, unmarriageable, is sentenced to a dull, provincial existence in the backwaters of Britain. Now, master storyteller Colleen McCullough rescues Mary from her dreary fate with "The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet," a page-turning sequel set twenty years after Austen's novel closes. The story begins as the neglected Bennet sister is released from the stultifying duty of caring for her insufferable mother. Though many would call a woman of Mary's age a spinster, she has blossomed into a beauty to rival that of her famed sisters. Her violet eyes and perfect figure bewitch the eligible men in the neighborhood, but though her family urges her to marry, romance and frippery hold no attraction. Instead, she is determined to set off on an adventure of her own. Fired with zeal by the newspaper letters of the mysterious Argus, she resolves to publish a book about the plight of England's poor. Plunging from one predicament into another, Mary finds herself stumbling closer to long-buried secrets, unanticipated dangers, and unlooked-for romance. Meanwhile, the other dearly loved characters of "Pride and Prejudice" fret about the missing Mary while they contend with difficulties of their own. Darcy's political ambitions consume his ardor, and he bothers with Elizabeth only when the impropriety of her family seems to threaten his career. Lydia, wild and charming as ever, drinks and philanders her way into dire straits; Kitty, a young widow of means, occupies herself with gossip and shopping; and Jane, naive and trusting as ever, spends her days ministering to her crop of boys and her adoring, if not entirely faithful, husband. Yet, with the shadowy and mysterious figure of Darcy's right-hand man, Ned Skinner, lurking at every corner, it is clear that all is not what it seems at idyllic Pemberley. As the many threads of McCullough's masterful plot come together, shocking truths are revealed, love, both old and new, is tested, and all learn the value of true independence in a novel for every woman who has wanted to leave her mark on the world
Lael St. James
My Lady Beloved by Lael St. James, Linda Lael Miller (Goodreads Author) 3.78 · Rating details · 144 Ratings · 8 Reviews On the way to her nuptials to Sir Cyprian Avendall, sweet and sheltered Gabriella Redclift is abducted by vengeful Morgan Chalstrey, and soon they cannot resist yielding to the passion and love building between them.