Historical Homes

The Civil War arrived in north Louisiana with a vengeance. Ophelia Quinn finds herself in an unexpected predicament. Captain Austin Torres must defy his orders to keep a promise. But will the war turn everything upside down? An enchanting and spellbinding historical romance set against the backdrop of the American Civil War.

A dashing young man appears at Lady Brockenhurst's soiree - but who is he and why is he so favored by their hostess? Belgravia is the story of a secret. A secret that unravels behind the porticoed doors of London's grandest postcode. The story behind the secret will be revealed in weekly bite-sized installments complete with twists and turns and cliff-hanger endings. Set in the 1840s when the upper echelons of society began to rub shoulders with the emerging industrial nouveau riche, Belgravia is peopled by a rich cast of characters.

When war breaks out in September 1939, Laura, Andy and Tim Clark are evacuated to the countryside. The Colonel's comfortable home in Dorset is a huge contrast to their cramped terraced house in London, where their loving parents struggle to put the next meal on the table. Though unused to having children around, the Colonel proves to be a kind and generous, if gruff, guardian until a terrible turn of events means the kids must move on.

Following the untimely death of her husband, Beatrix and her three children are finally free. While Ambrose has already determined his path in life, eldest son Laurie's future is less certain. Meanwhile, headstrong and independent Alicia is defying expectation and excelling at school. There, she befriends the enigmatic Olivia Snowdon and they quickly become inseparable. But Olivia's family past is shrouded in mystery and as she begins to dig deeper secrets come tumbling out.

In 1958 Detroit, neighbors on Alder Avenue struggle to care for one another amid a city rife with conflicts that threaten their peaceful street. Grace, Alder’s only expectant mother, eagerly awaits her firstborn; her best friend, Julia, prepares to welcome twin nieces; and Malina sets the tone with her stylish dresses, tasteful home, and ironfisted stewardship of St. Alban’s bake sale. Life erupts when childlike Elizabeth disappears while in the care of Grace and Julia. All the ladies fear that the recent murder of a black woman at the factory on Willingham Avenue where their husbands work may portend what has become of Elizabeth.

I don't want to remember the truck, or the night I was taken, or the family I left behind. I am not a sad Polish girl. I am a good and happy German girl. I am. I am. I am. It's the Second World War and Himmler's Lebensborn Program is in full flight when eight-year-old Zofia Ulinski is kidnapped by the Germans. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, just like the other Polish children taken from their families and robbed of their names, their language, their heritage.

Marcus has one brother in a youth offender centre and the other is working with their dad on plans for their next theft. Everyone assumes Marcus will follow in their footsteps, but he has other ideas, different hopes. When a mysterious accident lands a man in hospital, it confirms what everyone in their community expects and Marcus gets the blame. He feels trapped. Only new girl Emma - with her peace protest banners and political badges - questions this story. Can they work together to clear his name – and help Marcus become the person he really wants to be?

Set on the shores of the Albemarle Sound, April Harrington has fond memories of summers at her family home, Bliss. After her fairytale wedding disintegrates, it becomes her refuge - the one place where she can attempt to pull the unraveling threads of her life back together. Unbeknownst to April, the stately house has been neglected in recent years. The once-sturdy roof is leaking in a few dozen places, and the wharf is rotting. Nothing is the same as she remembers.

A person's past catches up with them when they least expect and often does it in under a minute. Jesse's did. His threw him on a horse in the dark of night, dragging him down to Texas to answer for it. This third book of the ARLH saga dives into Jesse's past and collides head-on with his present, leaving the wayward man questioning all he thought he knew about himself.

A mysterious key left by her murdered sister takes Air Transport Auxiliary pilot Betty Palmer on a journey of discovery and danger. Her estranged parents force themselves back into her life, motivated purely by greed and self-preservation. Penny's life is unexpectedly turned upside down by a potentially life-changing situation that causes her wounded husband to question their marriage.

When Simon McDermott first noticed his dad Ted's sudden flares of temper and fits of forgetfulness, he couldn't have guessed what lay ahead. Then came the devastating, inevitable diagnosis. As Ted retreated into his own world, Simon and his mum, Linda, desperately tried to reach him until at last: an idea. Turning the ignition in his mum's little run-around, Simon hit 'play' on Ted's favourite song, 'Quando Quando Quando'.

Townsville, 1942. Young women aged sixteen and over are obliged by law to join the war effort, and Emma Hatton's world is at last about to change. Longing to escape the humdrum poverty of oceanside Blueholm Bay and the demands of her domineering mother, Emma reaches the bustling wartime mayhem of Townsville where the city streets are filled with glamorous GIs and red lipstick is the colour of the day. Befriending charismatic Cassie O'Byrne, Emma believes her adult life has finally begun.

Heartbreaking and wise, Rush Home Road tells the life story of Adelaide Shadd, who finds redemption in old age, and Sharla, a five-year-old mixed race girl abandoned to Addy’s care by her white mother. Born in the first decade of the 20th century in Rusholme (inspired by the real town of Buxton), in southwestern Ontario, an all-black community settled by fugitive slaves, Addy Shadd is raped as a teenager and forced to flee the family home. She makes her way on foot to Detroit.

When her life is shattered by the War Between the States, Olivia Harrington scrambles to rebuild a lost family fortune by running the Federal blockade out of Wilmington, North Carolina. Her daring and bravery has allowed her to keep Bliss, the home she hasn’t seen in months... the place where she is now headed. Yet waiting at home for Livie is a houseful of trouble… her dying brother, and the man who risked everything to honor a friend’s final wish… the very man who broke Livie’s heart long ago, and whom she thought never to see again…. The Long Road Home is a novella that is ...

The sisters of Street Child tell their story… A companion novel to the best-selling story of Victorian orphan Jim Jarvis, based on the founding of Dr. Barnardo's homes for children. When Jim Jarvis is separated from his sisters, Lizzie and Emily, he thinks he will never see them again. Now for the first time, the best-selling author of Street Child reveals what happened to his orphaned sisters.

Detective Rudyard Bloodstone’s career is moving along well as Holborn Station’s lead investigator. His year had gotten even better when he met London’s celebrated music-hall star Honeysuckle Flowers. As he and his lady embark on celebrating the holidays, Rudyard grows homesick for Wales and his family there. He makes plans to see his parents and thinks it is the perfect time to introduce Honeysuckle to them. To his unhappy surprise, his mother paints her with a trollop’s brush.

Ann Scarlet is no thief, but when the Yankee sheriff catches her she might just steal his heart. Ann has a single goal when journeying from her home in Savannah to Red River Rock Falls, Nebraska in 1875: find Whitaker and get back the land deed he stole from her brother. It seems simple enough, until Sheriff Crambert finds her with her hands full of money as she rifles through a pile of land deeds.

We're in Bacchus Marsh in the 1950s, with car salesmen, an early aviator, and the lives of Irene Bobs and Willy Bachhuber. The striking Irene is ahead of her time, a fearless, big-hearted, independently minded woman. Her next door neighbour Willy seems to be constantly in flight from his own life. He lacks social confidence but is extremely well read, so much so that he's a radio quiz champ. And he has a particular fondness for maps.

Born in England and raised in India by her father after her mother's untimely death, Asyra has been ostracized from her small village most of her life. News of her impending marriage arranged by her grandmother back in England only serves to confuse her further about who she is and where she fits in. When Madras is attacked by the French before Asyra's ship sails, she must pretend to be the wife of her grandmother's agent, who happens to be the elder brother of her intended. Can she move beyond prejudice to find her place in the world?

The wonderfully nostalgic and heartwarming new novel from the Sunday Times top-ten best-selling author of The Beggar Maid. Born out of wedlock when her mother was only fourteen, Lucy Pocket has spent all her life in the care of her disreputable but charming grandmother, Eva. They dodge from one poor lodging house to another, always in debt and resorting to theft in order to exist. Until her wealthy paternal grandfather buys her from Eva, determined to bring Lucy up to be a lady.