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Hester (1883) is a dramatic story of female power and family tensions within Victorian society. Using her own money, Catherine Vernon manages to save the family bank from collapse after her cousin John absconds with some of its money. As the matriarch of Redborough, Catherine is used to commanding authority, but this is challenged with the arrival of John’s strong and capable teenage daughter, Hester. Ignorant of her father’s conduct, Hester takes against Catherine and a mutual antipathy soon sets in. A masterpiece of domestic realism, the novel is one of Mrs Oliphant’s most admired works.

Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband, Edward. An apothecary who has fallen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts have forced them to flee Edinburgh for a fresh start in the New World. But only days after they've arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic—leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible.

Finding Hester explores the untold story of Hester Leggatt, a woman who helped trick the Nazis, and is a fascinating listen for fans of West End musical Operation Mincemeat and anyone with an interest in women’s war stories.

The setting is the beginning of an Amish settlement in colonial America in the forests of eastern Pennsylvania. There, a young Amish couple, Hans and Kate Zug, are in their ninth year of marriage, still waiting to have a child. Then, one April morning, Kate finds a Native infant, wrapped in deerskin and placed next to the spring where she went to fill her water bucket.

Nona McKinley raised three boys in the Hester Gardens section of Medford, Michigan, an impoverished community divided by those who follow their faith in God and those who turn to crime to survive. With her drug dealer husband behind bars and her eldest son shot to death at eighteen, Nona has devoted herself to ensuring her other children escape their brother’s fate. Her second son Marcus is on the right path. He's a valedictorian heading to an Ivy League school. He can get out. But then, strange things start happening to Nona and other residents.

'Fans of Sarah Waters and Hilary Mantel will love this' LAURA SHEPPERSON 'Unsettling, claustrophobic and compelling' KATE RIORDAN 'Gripping frightening and wholly original' JODIE MATTHEWS 'A chillingly Gothic tale that is exquisitely written' TOBI COVENTRY The thrilling new historical mystery...

When Melissa is made unfairly redundant from her job at an estate agents' office, she decides it's time for a change. Instead of working for other people, Melissa will go into business for herself: using her organisational skills to whip the lives of London's socially and romantically challenged men into shape. Then Melissa meets Jonathan, and suddenly she must decide if she can mix business with pleasure....

As her alter ego, Honey, Melissa is the go-to woman for improving men's dating lives. But when her American boyfriend, Jonathan, invites her to New York for a holiday, he has one condition: the blonde wig stays at home. This is easier said than done, and before long Mel finds herself juggling a rude rising star who just happens to be an ex, Jonathan's manipulative ex-wife, an unruly terrier and escalating crises back at the agency. Can Melissa put the manners back into Manhattan? Or is this a challenge only the Little Lady Agency can handle?

Hester and Harriet lead comfortable lives in a pretty cottage in an English village. Having opened their minds, home and hearts to Daria, a mysterious migrant, and her baby son, Milo, the widowed sisters decide to further expand their own horizons by venturing forth to Italy for their annual holiday. With a huge secret hanging between the sisters, an unlikely new love on the landscape for Hester and new beginnings also beckoning for Harriet, Italy provides more opportunities for adventure than either of them could ever have imagined.

June, 1878. The body of a boy is pulled from the depths of the River Thames, suspected to be the beloved missing child of the widely admired Liberal MP Ralph Gethin. Four months earlier. Harriet is a young maid newly employed at Finton Hall. Fleeing the drudgery of an unwanted engagement in the small village where she grew up, Harriet is entranced by the grand country hall; she is entranced too by her glamorous mistress Clara Gethin, whose unearthly singing voice floats through the house. But Clara, though captivating, is erratic.

Yes, that Hester—the fallen woman who bore the Scarlet Letter while raising her daughter on her own. She is looking back, across that clearing, and 150 years, at her fateful lover. Less a retelling or transposition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic than a repurposing of the materials to tell a...

Running The Little Lady Agency, Mel has one goal and one goal only: Make Men Better. But when her grandmother asks her to take on the case of a lifetime - Prince Nicolas of Hollenberg, Europe's most notorious of playboys - has she bitten off more than she can chew? Despite his good breeding, Nicolas is completely set on leading Melissa astray. Can Mel rise to the challenge? And has her own fairy-tale ending been there all along?

Every girl should know what the finishing touches are. When 21st-century girl Betsy is called in to rescue an exclusive finishing school from financial ruin, she knows she must change the school drastically. So it's out with debutante decorum and in with modern manners. But with hunky bursar Mark and her gorgeous friend Jamie on the scene, she will have to remind herself that in the modern world, you don't have to rely on old school feminine wiles to get what you want....

Years after the Salem witch trials one witch remains. She just doesn’t know it...yet. Growing up, Lydia Montrose knew she was descended from the legendary witches of Salem but was warned to never show the world what she could do and so slowly forgot her legacy. But Willow Hall has awoken something inside her.... 1821: having fled family scandal in Boston, Willow Hall seems an idyllic refuge from the world, especially when Lydia meets the previous owner of the house, John Barrett. But a subtle menace haunts the grounds of Willow Hall, with strange voices and ghostly apparitions in the night....

Hester and Harriet are reluctantly driving to visit relatives on Christmas Day when they come across a young woman hiding with her baby in a bus shelter. Seeing the perfect excuse for returning to their own warm hearth, the sisters insist on bringing Daria and Milo home with them. But with the arrival of a sinister stranger looking for a girl with a baby, Hester and Harriet's carefully crafted peace and quiet quickly begins to fall apart....

Amy Wilde is tired of the idiots her glamorous flatmate Jo keeps foisting upon her - she'd much rather be digging in the garden with her dog Badger at her side than trying to find the man of her dreams. That is, until she meets Leo Wolfsburg. Handsome, polite and funny, Leo is everything Amy could want in a boyfriend. Best of all, the attraction seems mutual. But Leo's lifestyle is a world away from her own. Private planes, charity balls, exclusive members' clubs - Amy begins to realise that her simple existence is being turned upside down. Is that what she wants?

"Weaves a spell of darkness that’s mysterious and magical, and binds it with a knot of deathless love." —New York Times bestselling author Susanna Kearsley on A Lullaby for Witches In post–World War I England, a young woman inherits a mysterious library and must untangle its powerful...

The Bonneville Hotel is the best-kept secret in Mayfair: its art deco suites and glittering ballrooms a former home-away-from-home for royalty and movie stars alike. Recent years haven’t been kind, but thanks to events manager Rosie, the Bonneville is reclaiming some of its old cachet as a chic retro-glam wedding venue. While Rosie’s weddings are the ultimate in romance, Rosie herself isn’t; she’s focused on the details, not the dramas.

** THE INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON ** 'There are many laughs in this book but it's so much more than just a comedy. It's a story about how friendship, selflessness and dignity lie at the heart of the human experience. When I'm an old man, I want to be Hendrik Groen' John Boyne, author of...

When Evie Nicholson is asked to visit Kettlesheer Castle in Scotland to archive the family heirlooms, she jumps at the chance. Evie's passion for antiques means that, for her, the castle is a treasure trove of mysteries just waiting to be uncovered. But in each heirloom lies a story, and in the course of her investigations Evie stumbles upon some long-buried family secrets. Add handsome, gloomy heir Robert McAndrew and a traditional candlelit gala to the mix, and Evie's heart is sent reeling with an enthusiasm that may just extend beyond the Kettlesheer silver....