Showing results for "the-girls" in Historical Fiction

Jane Hadley has nothing to lose when she runs away to join the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. Whatever faces her in war-torn London can't be any worse than staying at home with her abusive father. The city is nothing like she could have imagined, but she's soon on the move, travelling from base to base for her top-secret training. Making plenty of friends along the way, it doesn't take long for Jane to embrace her growing confidence - especially under the attentive eye of dashing Officer Oscar Stanton.

Mari Evans has always known life would be hard, but nothing could have prepared her for how quickly things would fall apart. First, the devastating news that her father has a second family – and chose them over her. Then the tragic accident in the pit that leaves her eldest brother unable to work. It started as an off-hand joke, a comment by her brother. ‘Cut your hair, Mari. You could pass for a lad and work the pit in my place.’

1942, New Zealand. Edith’s been locked away for a long time. She was just five years old when she was sent to Seacliff Lunatic Asylum. Fifteen years later, she has few memories of her life before the asylum, but longs for one beyond it. When she survives a devastating fire that destroys her ward, Edith is questioned by the police and a young doctor, Declan Harris. Intrigued by his beautiful patient, Declan begins to doubt the official reasons for her incarceration. Is she truly mad - or could the impossible stories she told as a child actually be true?

Sydney, 1941: Olive and Ivy may be identical twins, but they couldn’t be more different. While Olive is focused on marrying a man appropriate to her station, Ivy wants to do more, to be more. Joining the Australian Women’s Army Service is the perfect chance for her to escape her family obligations and make a real difference in the world. She doesn’t expect serving her country to lead to romance...or devastating betrayal and unthinkable grief. Sydney, 2008: Escaping her husband’s betrayal and an impossible personal loss, Madeline returns home to Sydney to nurse her broken heart.

England, 1937: After a devastating childhood at Blakely Hall Orphanage, 15-year-old Sandra is released. She finds work as a housemaid, finally able to put her past behind her. But the start of World War Two throws the country into turmoil, and her brother, Alf, is sent away to fight, leaving her completely alone. Germany, 1939: Eleven-year-old Frieda is about to board a ship bound for England with her brother, Kurt. But at the last moment, as Frieda stands on the deck crammed with frightened children, she spots her brother jumping off, back to land.

Discover the brand-new heartwarming and dramatic novel in the Steel Girls series now! 'Emotional and authentic' KATE THOMPSON 'Saga fans are in for a treat!' VICKI BEEBY 'Hopeful, joyous and uplifting' MILLY JOHNSON 'Wartime drama at its best, and the steel girls are my absolute favourite'...

London, 1881. Lily Raynor, owner of the World's End Investigation Bureau, is growing increasingly worried. Work is drying up, finances are tight and she cannot find enough for her sole employee, Felix Wilbraham, to do. So when schoolteacher Georgiana Long arrives, with a worrying tale of runaway pupils, it seems like the answer to her prayers. Disguised as the new Assistant Matron, Lily joins the Shardlowes School staff. But there are undercurrents at Shardlowes, and the shadowy, powerful men who fund the school's less fortunate pupils loom larger as Felix's own investigations unfold.

1946, Norfolk, England: She gazes out across the beach, its beauty marred by the sharp barbed wire, hiding deadly mines beneath the sand. Back in the village, everyone is nervously awaiting the arrival of the German prisoners, who will change everything. After the death of her beloved brother on the front lines in Europe, it is hard for Fran to see these young men as anything but his killers. But prisoner Thomas, with his gentle nature and piercing blue eyes that see into Fran’s very soul, will force her to question everything she thought she knew.

Housewife Nancy never dreamed that she’d end up in Vickers steelworks factory, but when husband Bert is called up to serve, she needs to put food on the table for her two young children. Betty’s sweetheart, William, has joined the RAF Reserves, so she can’t sit around and do nothing - even if it means giving up her ambitions to study law at night school. Young Patty is relishing the excitement the war brings. But this shop-girl is going to have to grow up quickly, especially now she’s undertaking such back-breaking and dangerous work in the factory.

When duty calls, East End girl Minnie Wolton isn’t afraid to do her bit. She’s excited to be joining the ATS girls and although she knows life at the barracks will be tough, she’s not one to quit! She just hopes the other girls are all good sorts. With her husband away fighting, Eileen Ruffel is glad of the break from her unhappy marriage. She just wants to make a success of the ATS girls and maybe find happiness too. Along with the other girls, Minnie and Eileen strike up a firm friendship. The training is hard, but they are determined to prove they are the best new recruits.

The Only Girl in the World follows the gripping romance between English WWI soldier Dennis and Helene. Dennis cannot escape the shadows of the trenches, and with only two weeks leave, his future with Helene is not secure. When this war is over, he says he will come back for her. Dare Helene fall in love with this foreigner? Will he survive? In war, love is the only thing you can trust....

It’s 1938, and hard-working Lily Baker’s life turns upside down when she and her family move to a new town. Two jobs leave little free time, yet she becomes involved in a struggle to improve her area. Pushed by the group leader, she undertakes tasks she previously thought impossible and meets the man of her dreams. Amidst homesickness, looming war, and an aggressive father, can she find the strength to win through?

When a logging accident kills his friend and Felicity Woodbury’s fiancé, Lars Aagaard steps in to lend his support. To keep Felicity’s suitors at bay during her mourning period, the two act as if Lars is wooing her. But, already smitten, Lars hopes to turn the pretend courtship to real love.

A sweeping, sensational novel of America’s first “It Girl,” whose dramatic journey to center stage echoes through the decades—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post At the dawn of the twentieth century, New York’s streets teem with change...

Joan Seabrook, a fledgling archaeologist, has fulfilled a lifelong dream to visit Arabia by travelling from England to the ancient city of Muscat with her fiancé, Rory. Desperate to escape the pain of a personal tragedy, she longs to explore the desert fort of Jabrin and unearth the treasures it is said to conceal. But Oman is a land lost in time - hard, secretive and in the midst of a violent upheaval - and gaining permission to explore Jabrin could prove impossible.

Hanna flees the scene of a terrible crime in her native Sligo. London seems the perfect place to disappear.... Lara has always loved Matthew, but when he says he wants to join the priesthood, a brokenhearted Lara heads to the most godless place she can find.... Matthew's twin sister, Noreen, could not be more different from her brother. She craves sex, parties and fun.... All three girls find themselves working for one of London's most feared gangland bosses, and it's not long before their new lives start to unravel.

Nach einer Jugend in der Provinz und dem Rausschmiss aus dem College stürzt sich die 19-jährige Vivian kopfüber in das wilde Leben Manhattans: Musicals, Bars, Jazz und Gangster. Um jede Ecke biegt eine neue Liebe, erst recht im Lily Playhouse, dem sympathisch heruntergekommenen Theater, für das sie Kostüme näht. Doch dann begeht sie einen skandalösen Fehler, der den Lauf ihres Lebens grundlegend verändert. Und sie Jahre später doch erkennen lässt: "Es kommt der Punkt im Leben einer Frau, an dem sie es leid ist, sich ständig nur zu schämen.

From New York Times bestselling author Karen Harper comes a novel based on the lives of two amazing sisters . . . One sailed the Titanic and started a fashion empire . . . The other overtook Hollywood and scandalized the world . . . Together, they were unstoppable. They rose from genteel poverty...

June, 1951. It's a tense summer in the City of Angels. A killer is on the loose. She's blonde, she's beautiful, and she murders bad guys. On three different occasions, she thwarted a mugging in progress, saving the innocent, dispatching the guilty, and fading away like a whisper in the rain. She never waits around for thanks. Apparently, she doesn't want any. Who is this woman?

DG is five the first time her mother goes away. She’ll go away again and again before DG finally understands why: mental illness and a manipulating husband. DG’s family aren’t like other families. Her father moves them constantly. Moving, along with the stigma of mental illness, isolates the family. In public, they seem the perfect American dream. In private they grow increasingly unstable. Darling Girl unfolds in a series of vignettes spanning 10 years and four continents.