Showing results for "mother" in Friendship

Sophie Mills has worked her Manolo Blahniks off to reach the near-top of her profession. And she's very happy with her priorities in life - her job, her neurotic cat Artemis and her passion for shoes. After all, relationships only get in the way. And as for children? She hasn't even begun to think about them yet.

Paris, 1939. Elise and Juliette are certain nothing can come between them. So, when war breaks out and Elise is forced to flee, she entrusts Juliette with her daughter, playmate to Juliette's own little girl. More than a year later, with the war finally ending, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend's bookstore reduced to rubble - and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to Mathilde in those last terrible moments?

To everyone who knows them, Louisa and Tom are the perfect couple. They have two beautiful kids, Stan and Flo, and are about to celebrate ten years of being happily married. Life is perfect. But when Lou is dealt devastating news, that perfect life is turned upside down and Lou and Tom must reevaluate the very foundations their marriage is built on. Lou’s main concern is who will look after her children if she’s not there to care for them? Will anyone be able to love them like she does?

Tabitha Thomas gave up on a happy family life with Michael, her absent, high-flying husband, long ago. Instead, she pooled all her energies into their daughter, Rosie, and her career as headteacher at a local primary school. However, trouble is looming all around her. Unbeknown to Tabitha, Rosie is having a crisis of confidence with the most important exams of her life, and best friend Clodagh, a top TV news broadcaster, is being edged out by an ambitious younger model. And Tabitha’s eco-warrior mother is protesting outside the school over a development.

When Lou Winterpicks up a dog-eared magazine in the dentist's waiting room and spots an article about clearing clutter, she little realises how it will change her life. What begins as an earnest spring clean soon spirals out of control. Lou's loved ones grow disgruntled. Why is clearing out cupboards suddenly more important than making his breakfast, her husband, Phil, wonders? The truth is, the more rubbish Lou lets go of, the more light and air can get to those painful, closed-up places at the centre of her heart.

After a bruising divorce, headstrong Juliet Miller invests in a flat and advertises for a flatmate, little believing that in her late 30s she'll find anyone suitable. But along comes self-employed copywriter Floz, raw from her own relationship split, and the two woman hit it off. When Juliet's twin brother, Guy, meets Floz, he is overcome with a massive crush, just as his friend Steve develops the hots for Juliet. But being a shy, gentle giant, Guy communicates so clumsily with Floz as to give her the opposite impression.

After having given up her baby at seventeen, Sonya is inspired by her work at an orphanage to discover what happened to her daughter twenty-five years ago. Reunited, they struggle to bond whilst braving the war together. Nurse Lily has returned to St Ives to finish training as a midwife. But when old flame Tristan is brought in wounded, she must put the past firmly to bed in order to care for him. And working at Tristan’s convalescent home, Mary longs for the romance she reads of in her novels. But her overprotective mother is making that more difficult at every turn.

When Julia Hudson is involved in a near-fatal accident, the lives of her children – nurse Flo and her twin sister, high-flying lawyer Ari – are sent into freefall. As they sit vigil by their mother’s bedside, the sisters discover that Julia, who has always preached unwavering principles and integrity, has been keeping a terrible secret. A secret that shatters everything they’ve ever believed about their family. But the twins have each other… or do they? Because Julia is not the only one keeping secrets…

Bonnie has been running from her tragic past for far too long. Now, years after the events that changed her life for ever, the time has come to face it. Her search for answers takes her to the idyllic town of Hamblin. Alice’s perfect life is slipping through her fingers. Drowning in debt, she struggles on, working long days alongside her daughter Laura, ever more desperate to hold on to what little remains. Laura had her future as an artist snatched from her when she had to return home to care for her father. When their worlds collide, Laura and Bonnie form an instant bond.

Grace Harkness looks like she has it all - two beautiful children, four cookbooks under her belt, and an idyllic beachside home #blessed. But add another baby on the way (oops), a spouse that is nowhere to be seen, and a relentless list of things she "should" be doing, and Grace is starting to unravel. When the madness of modern-day motherhood finally pushes her to the brink, Grace and her friends decide to ditch the men in their lives, move in together, and create a "mummune" - sharing the load of chores, school pick-ups/drop-offs, and endless Life Admin.

When Sydney and Mae meet on the playground as toddlers, it seems like kismet. Even their very different mothers—the type-A Beth Ann and the free-spirited Joni—agree the girls are made for each other, and it's not long before even the mothers become inseparable. Then a falling out draws them apart, and decades later, the loneliness still lingers for the newly pregnant Sydney. Adrift in the absence of her closest friend, Sydney has been drawn into a Multi-Level Marketing scheme, exacerbated by the demands of her inflexible mother, Beth Ann.

Zainab, Funmi and Enitan first meet at University in northern Nigeria, all learning how to become themselves. It's an experience that binds the three very different women together. When Enitan moves to New York to elope with a white man, Zainab and Funmi are left behind, with drastically different fortunes. Over the course of 30 years, their lives and friendships diverge and change. Funmi is separating from her husband, trying to understand her daughter Remi. Zainab finds herself the sole breadwinner for her husband and their four sons.

Eighteen years ago, teenage Amy fled England, pregnant and heartbroken, to start over in New Zealand with her parents. Now Chris, the love she left behind, has walked into her beloved café by the beach and thrown her life into turmoil. As far as Amy’s concerned, Chris chose to ignore the child she was carrying when they last met. She brought up their daughter alone and created a happy home for them both on the other side of the world. But with Chris suddenly back in her life, she can no longer ignore the past and begins to wonder what really happened all those years ago.

When 18-year-old Eve runs away from her small village to start a new life in the city, she quickly discovers that Leeds is not everything she expected it to be. Wandering the cold streets in search of shelter, timid Eve can only find work as a barmaid at the Bluebell Inn - a place her strict parents would never approve of. Serving ale and cheap gin to the rowdy crowd, Eve eventually catches the eye of dashing Sergeant Joseph Oates - but his intentions are not honourable, and he will leave her with more than just a broken heart.

They’ve swapped the dark and lonely baby days for school gate chaos, but Aisha, Sophy and Mel are discovering that there are new parenting pitfalls just waiting for them. Can the three mums navigate this new stage of motherhood together and keep their friendship and their sanity? Or could life be about to change for them all over again?

Mia is telling me a story. It’s about a princess, who lives in a castle, on a street that bears a remarkable resemblance to ours. About a kind old lady who’s the queen. I’m distracted for a moment by her little hand softly slipping into mine. My daughter. My angel. But then she says something that pulls me from my reverie. She says that the queen doesn’t treat the princess well. She punishes her and doesn’t let her eat anything…Helen, my neighbour, has been so good to me. And more importantly, she’s so good with the children. Surely this is just another story of Mia’s, just make believe.

Eve knows what she wants. After nine good years and two kids together, it's about time Liam made an honest woman of her. Eve's sister Sam knows more than she should. She's always thought Eve was too good for Liam. And when she learns the truth about his numerous business trips abroad, her suspicions are confirmed. Brooke, literally a world away, knows nothing. Until one day, a mysterious delivery arrives and promises to change her life forever.

Deeply humane, in turn wry and humorous, the stories in this collection haunt listeners with their searing honesty.

When Meredith flies home to New England, daughter Eloise in tow, she leaves her husband and a life back in LA. A heartbreaking loss is killing their marriage. So she looks to her mother and siblings for the support she desperately needs, and the love her daughter surely deserves—two things her husband can’t seem to provide. Meredith’s mother, Delia, is thrilled by their sudden arrival at the family farm. But her husband braces for the chaos his stepdaughter and granddaughter will surely bring.

The annual Halloween block party is the pinnacle of the year on idyllic suburban cul-de-sac Ivy Woods Drive. An influential group of neighbourhood mums - known as the Ivy Five - plans the event for months. Except the Ivy Five has been four for a long time. When a new mother moves to town, eager to fit in, the mums see it as an opportunity to make the group whole again. This year's block party should be the best yet…until the women start receiving anonymous messages threatening to expose the quiet neighbourhood's dark past - and the lengths they've gone to hide it.