Showing results for "hilary" in Genre Fiction

Twenty years ago, during a family holiday on the savage and remote island of Little Auger, eleven-year-old Hazel left her bed and was never seen again. The unanswered questions surrounding Hazel’s disappearance tore three families apart and the girls left behind all experience their own terrible guilt. Roz, because she broke a promise; Catrin, because it was her idea; and Nina, who slept through it all. Their friendship never recovers and all three women go on to lead vastly different lives.

Every morning is the same for Eliza: she swims in Hampstead Ponds, diving into her memories, reliving the heady days of her teenage friendship with Eric and Maggie. The obsession, the adoration, and the sense of belonging she always craved was perfect, until everything was destroyed in a single afternoon. With guilt never far from the surface, she still asks herself: what really happened that day?

Della’s life was everything she’d dreamed of: a loving husband, teenage daughter, and a peaceful cottage in the woods with her own pottery studio. But then her husband, Leo, collapses and on his deathbed makes a devastating confession that turns Della’s world upside down. Consumed by grief, Della finds the ancient woodland that once sheltered her now feels threatening. The only solace comes from her new neighbour, Carrie, whose kindness gives Della a fragile sense of hope.

Isla knows her family kept things from her. When she inherits the cliffside cottage where she spent her childhood, she must face dark shadows of her past—the mother who rejected her in favour of her art, the aunt whose death haunted them both, and the silence that permeated every room. Digging through the belongings of someone she realises she never really knew, Isla finally has the chance to find answers to the secrets her mother spent a lifetime hiding.

Kitty has escaped her family home in England to join an international brigade of fighters high up on the snow-covered Spanish borders, determined to lead an effective fight against the growing Fascist forces sweeping across Spain. In Oxford, Grace has embarked on a new posting, working with two medical scientists—one Australian, one a German refugee—on the brink of a great discovery that will impact a life-changing treatment for infection. But for now, they need to keep their findings away from the envious eyes of Nazi extremists.

One of the 21st century's most celebrated authors, Hilary Mantel won the Booker Prize twice: for 2009's Wolf Hall, the first in her phenomenally successful Thomas Cromwell trilogy, and its 2012 sequel Bring Up the Bodies. The third novel in the series, 2020's The Mirror and the Light, won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. This collection includes three of her best works of contemporary fiction, ranging from the Gothic to the blackly comic.

In Temporary, a young woman’s workplace is the size of the world. She fills increasingly bizarre placements in search of steadiness, connection, and something, at last, to call her own. Whether it’s shining an endless closet of shoes, swabbing the deck of a pirate ship, assisting an assassin, or filling in for the Chairman of the Board, for the mythical Temporary, “there is nothing more personal than doing your job.”

Seventeen-year-old Ariadne is in love with young British National Serviceman, Stephen Allenby. But her family are deeply involved with an organization campaigning for a union with Greece, and do not approve. And they’re not the only ones. It’s only a matter of time before Stephen is sent back to England, leaving Ariadne pregnant and alone. Stephen does his best to move on with his life. He marries Laura and has a baby girl called Cressida, but it’s not long before the cracks start to show and his marriage falls apart …

Caroline, Fiona and Ruth are lifelong friends, who've grown up together, laughed and cried together, and stood by each other through thick and thin. They may not always see eye to eye, and they might drive each other crazy, but they can't do without each other. But life's got a lot more complicated since they were 22, when the only things they carried around were handbags. Now, in midlife, they've got more baggage than the average airport carousel.

What do you do if you’ve been married to a man for half your life and out of nowhere he leaves your bed – permanently? When this happens to Jeanie, she’s furious and determined to confront George, her husband of thirty years. Is he in love with someone else? What did she do wrong? He won’t tell her. The brightest day of her week is Thursday; the day Jeanie takes her granddaughter to the park.

It's no secret - to survive in a superficial town like Forest River, New York, where perfection is a requirement - a mom must follow the rules. For the past five years, Donna has worked hard to exceed social expectations. She held the prestigious role of PTA treasurer, and her best friend, Jackie, is the most powerful woman at the elementary school.

PTA President Jackie Martin is the envy of the mothers. She has a loyal and handsome husband, she hosts elaborate parties, and her eldest daughter, Hayley, is the most popular child in the fifth grade. Her life appears flawless, but is life ever what it seems to be? After receiving a painful blow, when Hayley was in kindergarten, Jackie clawed her way into PTA power. She lived her life by the adage "Proper planning prevents poor performance". Her attention to detail (okay, fine - her control-freak nature) served her well until she experiences the ultimate betrayal.

When her beloved sister Caroline dies suddenly, Deirdre is heartbroken. However, her sorrow turns to bone-chilling confusion when she receives a message Caroline sent days earlier warning that her death would be no accident. Long used to being a pariah to her family, Deirdre covers her tattoos and heads to Manhattan for her sister’s funeral. The message claimed Caroline’s husband, Theo, killed his first wife and got away with it.

Mrs Tim goes to the Highlands of Scotland and is involved in a plot to rescue a naval officer from the toils of a siren; but, alas, the best laid plans "gang aft agley". The characters are skilfully drawn, from the fierce Mrs London, with her heart of gold, to the garrulous Mrs Falconer, whose muddled stories of her girlhood make excruciatingly funny reading.

Matilda is the granddaughter of William the Conqueror but also descended, through her mother, from the ancient line of Anglo-Saxon kings. Betrothed to Emperor Henry of Germany at the age of eight, she is married at 12 and crowned Empress. By her early 20s she is a widow, and the only surviving legitimate heir to her father, Henry I of England. Forced into a second marriage to a boy 10 years younger, she gives birth to three sons, the male heirs her father longs for.

When PTA President Jackie Martin’s husband suffers a life-threatening car accident, she has no choice but to step down from her dream position. Unfortunately, the team is already short-staffed and struggling to fill the vacancy.

La protagonista de esta novela hace de todo: fregar en un barco pirata, ordenar armarios de zapatos, llevar las cenizas de su jefe, trabajar para un asesino a sueldo... Y, sin embargo, parece que nunca ha estado más lejos de tener un empleo estable, aunque ella continúa soñando con lograrlo algún día, en un mundo en el que pensar a largo plazo se antoja difícil de por sí, y más si tienes dieciocho novios y un fantasma.

Jo Greaver is a model of success. Young and ambitious, she’s built a thriving beauty business from nothing. But she has secrets she’ll do anything to keep buried. When her blackmailer offers to meet, Jo expects to pay him off - but gets a bullet instead. Bleeding and in shock, Jo flees with no one to turn to. When NYPD detective Sheryn Sterling and her partner, Rafael Mendoza, find Andray Baxter murdered in his own home - shot through the heart - everything points to Jo as the killer. Her blood is at the scene, and so are disturbing photos of her taken as a young teen.

When her 12-year-old son, Noah, gets expelled from school just weeks before Christmas, recently widowed Charlotte is at a loss. With nowhere else to turn, feeling defeated and alone, she’s drawn to her mother-in-law, Dot and her country store in the small town of St Martins. What starts as a desperate attempt to regain control soon becomes an unexpected season of healing, connection, and rediscovering the magic of the holidays, at The Old Mill.

Imogen, the beautiful and much younger wife of distinguished barrister Evelyn Gresham, is facing the greatest challenge of her married life. Their neighbour Blanche Silcox, competent, middle-aged and tweedy - the very opposite of Imogen - seems to be vying for Evelyn's attention. And to Imogen's increasing disbelief, she may be succeeding.