Showing titles in Friendship

After a tumultuous few months, Tess Alexander is ready to welcome her first guests to The Garden Retreat, a beautiful lodge in the grounds of Hollyhocks Cottage. With her daughter Hannah home from her travels in Australia and her mother, Marjorie, acting out of character, Tess has to juggle many demands on her attention. Even her flourishing relationship with dashing Rob Templeton is put to the test when he faces an emotional dilemma from his past and Barney, her beloved beagle, has her at her wits end.

If Lark and Mikki didn’t have each other, they’d have nothing in this miserable town. So the best friends stick together, working night shift at the highway travel stop, going nowhere fast. Until a stranger drops in, heading for Florida, and Mikki impulsively leaves with him, never to be seen again. Eight years later, Lark is finally getting her life back together for the sake of her young daughter and Mikki’s lovably prickly grandma, who can no longer care for herself. People have almost stopped blaming Lark for Mikki’s disappearance, and she’s engaged to the nicest guy on highway patrol.

Brought to you by Penguin. Meredith Maggs hasn't left her house in 1,214 days. But she insists she isn't alone . . . She has her cat Fred. Her friend Sadie visits when she can. There's her online support group, StrengthInNumbers. She has her jigsaws, favourite recipes, her beloved Emily...

Sylvie and Donna travel on the same train to work each day but have never spoken. Their families are on different sides of the bitter Brexit divide, although the tensions and arguments at home give them much in common. What they don't know is that their eldest children, Rachid and Jodie, are about to meet for the first time and fall in love. Aware that neither family will approve, the teenagers vow to keep their romance a secret. But as Sylvie's family feel increasingly unwelcome in England, a desire for a better life threatens Rachid and Jodie's relationship. 

The recipe for a perfect summer… Step 1: Mix together a group of mature students Step 2: Add in a handsome host Step 3: Season with a celebrity chef Step 4: Bring to the boil at a luxurious cookery school in France! Waltho Williams has no idea what he’s letting himself in for when he opens...

'The Last Library made me laugh, cry, cheer and want to champion all of our fabulous libraries' Clare Pooley, author of The Authenticity Project 'A truly lovely and endearing read' Nina Pottell 'A powerful reminder about the importance of community, kindness and friendship. A truly stunning...

Adrift in the wake of her father's death, a failed marriage, and multiple miscarriages, Libby McKenzie feels truly alone. Though her new life as a wedding photographer provides a semblance of purpose, it's also a distraction from her profound pain. When asked to photograph a wedding at the historic Woodmont estate, Libby meets the owner, Elaine Grant. Hoping to open Woodmont to the public, Elaine has employed young widower Colton Reese to help restore the grounds and asks Libby to photograph the process.

It has been a long and lonely year for neighbours Vivienne, Mary and Gwen. All ladies of a ‘certain age’, their lockdown experience has left them feeling isolated and alone. They are in desperate need of a change. Things start to look up however, when Gwen comes up with a plan to get them out of London by borrowing a motor home. As their journey continues and their friendships deepen and while the seaside views turn into glorious mountains and moors, Mary, Vivienne and Gwen learn to smile again, to laugh again and maybe even to love again.

By the school house at Shancarrig stands a copper beech, its bark scarred with the names and dreams of the pupils who have grown up under its branches. Under Junior Assistant Mistress Maddy Ross's careful gaze the children play, but out of school Maddy's gaze lingers where it shouldn't. Maura...

Nestled at the end of a tiny, cobbled backstreet, is a charming, careworn bakery, its doorstep scrubbed clean and pale green linen blinds neatly drawn. Every night, long after customers have gone and the last crumbs wiped from the shelves, a key turns in the lock. This is a haven, a place where a candle burns through the night for anyone feeling lost or lonely. Frankie, kneading dough through the night and shaping croissants to bake for morning, hopes the bakery will keep her safe from the heartbreak of her past. 

No one is more surprised than Meredith when she’s bequeathed a cottage by a great aunt she’d never heard of. She hopes, briefly, that the inheritance could be the answer to her financial problems. But when she arrives in Suffolk, she is shocked to discover a man is already living there. A young gardener, who claims he was also bequeathed half of Butterfly Cottage. As the pair try to unravel their complicated situation, they unearth a decades old mystery involving Clara, the garden, and a stack of letters left unread for over 50 years.

Jason Schuyler is one of Anita Blake's best friends and favourite werewolves, with benefits. J.J. is his lady love, an old flame from childhood who dances at one of the top ballet companies in New York. Neither of them wants to be monogamous, so what could go wrong? J.J. is enthusiastically bisexual. She plans to keep sleeping with women, because Jason can't meet that need, just like she can't meet Jason's need for rough sex and bondage. With some encouragement from a few other lovers in Anita's life she reluctantly agrees, and J.J.

On Christmas Eve, 1968, Cathy McLean receives a surprise visit from the lost love of her life and is forced to choose between the one that got away and the one that stayed. On Christmas Eve, 1993, Cathy’s daughter Helena is overjoyed to hear that her boyfriend is about to propose, until a devastating encounter threatens to bring her heartbreak instead of diamonds. On Christmas Eve 2023, a shocking discovery rocks Eve Quinn’s world. The only gift Eve wants this year is the truth. But will it take a Christmas miracle to unravel generations of secrets?

Sylvia Townsend Warner was a prolific author of novels, short stories and poetry, who also wrote a biography of T. H. White, translated Proust and was an authority on Tudor church music. A sharp, insightful storyteller, she was one of the 20th Century's most acute observers of English mores, and her work is infused with subversive themes reflecting her feminist and Marxist views. This comprehensive anthology includes dramatisations of her two best-known novels.

Pearl, Thea and Jenny fling themselves into making Fenthorpe as festive as it can be, hoping they will be able to celebrate the end of C-Charlie’s tour. Disaster strikes when the squadron has to make a forced landing behind enemy lines and all the crewmen are reported missing. Pearl and Thea’s grandmother, Edith, immediately travels to Lincoln to support her granddaughters. But Edith has history at Fenthorpe – can the girls uncover her secrets to help their grandmother find new romance? And can C-Charlie evade capture and survive in enemy-occupied Holland to make it home for Christmas?

Life in Little Leyton is never quiet, and when handsome developer Max and his bride-to-be Ellie receive some sad news, he decides to whisk her away for a romantic break. The time away gives Ellie a new perspective, and she's eager to get home to get on with planning their wedding. But a devastating incident at the pub she runs, the Dog & Duck, puts everything in jeopardy. And at their home, tensions are heightened when Ellie's future mother-in-law turns up with all her worldly belongings, much to Max's sister Katy’s despair.

Riley and Jen have been best friends since they were children and they thought their bond was unbreakable. It never mattered to them that Riley is Black and Jen is white. Then Jen's husband, a Philadelphia police officer, is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager and everything changes in an instant.

Professional poker player Carla Wilson’s luck runs dry in Tucson, leaving her with nothing but an SUV running on fumes and a deed to the Tumbleweed Bus Stop and Diner in small-town Texas. Her plan to sell the café and move on seems simple enough—until she meets the motherly cook who rules the kitchen with an iron skillet and the sunny waitress who treats her like a sister.

Brought to you by Penguin. Get ready to fall in love with THE PINK HOUSE - home of the new novel from Sunday Times bestselling Queen of Romantic Comedy, Catherine Alliott PRAISE FOR CATHERINE ALLIOTT: 'A huge treat. Hilarious yet poignant' Sophie Kinsella 'Warm, witty and wise' Daily Mail 'Her...

Needing to escape her abusive marriage, Hadley flees with her two kids, knowing it might be her only chance. A woman who can’t even kill a spider, Hadley soon finds herself pushed to the limits as she fights to protect her family. Grace, new mother of baby Miles, desperately wants to put her rough past behind her for good, but she finds it impossible when her path crosses with Hadley’s, and her quest for a new start quickly spirals out of control and turns into a terrifying flight for survival.