Freda Lightfoot
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Can she overcome her family's doubts to achieve her dream?
Meg Turner has a hard life. She lives on a lonely farm in the Lake District and her only company is her bully of a father and her brother, who resents her. They want to keep her at home, but Meg is desperate for more.
She finds comfort in her best friend, Kath, and Lanky Lawson, who is more of a father figure to her than her own. Her true source of hope though, is Lanky's son, Jack, who...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
An old secret is about to be uncovered...
Daisy is devastated when her lover, Percy, abandons her. All alone, Daisy is forced by her own mother to give up her baby son for adoption — shortly before she throws Daisy out. War is imminent, and Daisy is evacuated to the Lake District, where she eventually tracks down her black-sheep aunt, Florrie. Together they set up a guest house, and when Daisy meets and falls in love with a young airman, Harry,...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Will her desire for love have disastrous consequences?
Lissa Turner has everything a girl could wish for. She's beautiful, intelligent and has a wonderful family in the beautiful Lake District. Despite her good fortune though, Lissa is not happy. Her real mother abandoned her as a baby and her feelings of confusion and vulnerability have persisted.
As soon as she is old enough she takes up a job in Carreckwater, a lively village in the heart of...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Where there's community, there's courage…
Jess Delaney has always longed for independence. But when the Blitz reaches Manchester, she is locked in the cellar by her feckless mother, Lizzie. As bombs reign down from a sky turned blood red with flame, Jess waits for Lizzie to return.
But fortunes are fickle, and soon Jess finds herself packed off to live with her tyrant Uncle Bernie, a bullying black marketeer. Though he treats her like a servant,...
Author
Language
English
Description
Will she lose everything she's worked so hard for?
The Second World War may be over, but the war in Polly Pride's home is only just beginning, and it will test her like never before.
Her son, Benny, never seems to be far from trouble, spending all his time with shady characters and winding up in the wrong places at the wrong times. Her daughter, Lucy, is seeing another man behind her husband's back and leaving her children to run riot. And Charlie,...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
What lengths will a mother go to in order to protect her son? The first in the historical Poor House Lane sagas. The slums of Poor House Lane are no place to bring up a child, and Kate O'Connor struggles to make ends meet when her beloved husband is killed, leaving her a single mother with a baby to support on the meagre hand-outs she gleans from charity. So when the childless Tysons, owners of Kendal's shoe factory, offer to adopt her son, Callum,...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
There were never such devoted sisters...Things are far from simple in the noisy, warm-hearted Bertalone family. Carmina is the quintessential extrovert with beaus flocking to her side like bees round a honeypot - all except Luc Fabriani. For some unaccountable reason, he seems to prefer Carmina's sister.
Gina has always been quiet and shy, the apple of her over-protective parents' eye, so she believes her sister when Carmina spreads malicious rumors...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Where there's daring, there's danger…
Isabella Ashton has always been her father's favourite, but when she gets involved with the new Birth Control Movement, he is scandalised. A decade has elapsed since the end of the Great War and running a family planning clinic in Salford is challenging but rewarding work.
Bella is grateful for the help of Violet Howarth, a generous-hearted woman who takes her in off the street. Before long, a friendship with...
Author
Language
English
Description
She will keep her head held high, no matter what...
Polly Pride's life is falling apart. Her husband has lost his job, there's no money coming in, and she has two young mouths to feed.
With the prospect of poverty looming over her, and her husband wallowing in apathy, Polly takes control. She sells everything they own and buys a rickety old handcart. Polly piles it high with second-hand rugs and spends hours hawking her wares around Manchester's cobbled...
Author
Language
English
Description
Passion, jealousy, and scandal abound in this regency romance based on the real-life rags-to-riches story of British actress Dora Jordan. Having grown up poor and fatherless in Ireland, Dorothy Jordan is determined to overcome her humble beginnings and become the most famous comic actress of her day. While performing on London's Drury Lane, Dora catches the eye of the Duke of Clarence, the man who would become King William IV. Beginning a romance...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
She must decide if her childhood sweetheart is worth the struggle...
Alena Townsen is in love with Rob and wants to spend the rest of her life with him. But he is the only son of James Hollinthwaite, a wealthy landowner who has his own ideas about Rob's future, and he forces the two to part. With no other option, Rob and Alena run away together and plan to start a new life.
Their dreams are shattered when they are discovered, and Rob is sent away...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
What will life bring now The Great War is over? The Great War is over and Kate is ready to welcome back Eliot with open arms. But her husband is a changed man. Kate has become used to her independence, and Eliot's return creates tensions both at work and at home, particularly with Kate's son, Callum. It tears Kate apart to see such strife between the two men she loves most. And her sister-in-law seems determined to stir up the animosity in order to...
13) Candy Kisses
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Chocolate can also be bitter...It is a truth universally acknowledged that everyone dotes on Aunty Dot, as much as they do on her homemade sweets. The plump, smiling woman has provided a loving home for many a troubled child over the years, and Lizzie Pringle is no exception.
Lizzie would do anything for her foster mother - even take on local sweet manufacturer and notorious bully, Cedric Finch. Until, that is, she falls for his son, Charlie.
Meanwhile,...
Author
Language
English
Description
Where there's muck, there's mettle…
Dolly Tomkins has always known what it is to live hand to mouth. In the mean streets of a Salford struggling under the mantle of the Great Depression, the only one making a decent living is the talleyman.
Though Nifty Jack has a money bag where his heart should be, Dolly's mam is in hock up to her ears and in dire need of assistance. But when Jack offers to wipe the slate clean, Dolly just can't bring herself...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Home is where you hang your hat...When Patsy talks her way into a job on the Champion Street Market millinery stall, the Higginson sisters get more than they bargained for.
Riddled with insecurities, Patsy's impudence wins her new enemies as well as friends and her determination to solve the riddle of her own past starts to unravel secrets Annie and Clara would much rather keep hidden.
Meanwhile, Molly Poulson hasn't a care in the world until her...
16) Lakeland Lily
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
When tragedy strikes, she must find a new path...
Lily Thorpe is spirited, ambitious and desperate to escape the poverty of her Lake District home, and marry her secret sweetheart Dick Rawlins. But tragedy strikes and Dick is killed in a boating accident caused by the wealthy and arrogant Clermont-Read family. Lily is forced to reassess her future, and she embarks on a quest for revenge and marries Bertie Clermont-Read.
The young couple are rejected...
17) Ruby McBride
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Where there's a rulebook, there's a rebel…
Ruby McBride has always been on the wrong side of authority. The grand opening of the Manchester Ship Canal is set to be a day of unfettered festivity for Ruby and her younger sister and brother. Even Queen Victoria will be in attendance.
But the glories of the ceremony fade into insignificance when their dying mother delivers them to the imposing oak doors of Ignatius House. Abandoned in the not-so-tender...
Author
Language
English
Description
Sunday Times bestselling author Freda Lightfoot is back with a heartwarming story of life after the war.
She must keep her family together...
The war is over and Evie Talbert eagerly awaits the return of her three children from their evacuated homes. But her carefree daughters and son are barely recognisable - their education has been disrupted, the siblings split up, and the effect on them has been life-changing. Her son has developed serious behavioural...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The final thrilling installment of The Poor house lane sagas… Kate finds herself back in Poor House Lane with some heartrending decisions to be made, not least how to find her missing son. Somehow she must also make a living for herself and help the women being abused by the hated Swainson. But nothing is straightforward, and her sister-in-law Lucy isn't done with her yet… The final emotional installment of the Poor House Lane Sagas is perfect...
Author
Language
English
Description
Finally, peace has been declared. Cathie hardly dares believe that Alex, the fiancé she has not seen for nearly two years, is coming home. And, finally, life can begin again for Cathie and the orphaned baby in her care. But the Alex who returns is not the kind, loving man Cathie remembers. He's cold, selfish, sometimes even frightening. So Cathie has a choice: stand by him, and try to contain his violent temper? Or hold her tiny baby close...and...