Showing results by publisher "Hodder & Stoughton" in Genre Fiction

The wheels are coming off in America. Opioid addictions accelerate unstoppably. Environmental collapse can be read in every weather report. Vigilante bands take over streets at night, wearing clownface makeup. The very idea of government, of citizenship, is challenged daily. And something is happening to teenagers across the country, spreading through memes only they know.

Written by Grazia magazine's Features Director, this is a novel about a woman who is trying, and so far failing, to conceive. A hugely funny, searingly honest comedy about what to expect when you're not expecting. Olivia and Felix are trying for a baby. They even moved to the suburbs in anticipation of their future family. But despite approaching her cycle and their sex life with military precision, there's still no sign of what felt like the sure next step, whilst friends' broods seem to be growing by the week.

In the quaint seaside town of Newbay, a beginner's cookery course is starting. And three very different students have signed up.... Liz, determined to find love, has heard the old adage that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. John is newly widowed after 57 years of marriage, facing a lifetime of cheese on toast. Twenty-two-year-old DeeDee has been drifting from one dead-end job to another. The only thing they have in common: between them, they can barely boil an egg!

It seems a long time ago that Fitz and Gabby were together, with his work on extinct species about to make him world-famous. Now, it's his career that is almost extinct. Suddenly, though, the beautiful Gabby reappears in his life. She wants his help in tracing the history of The Mysterious Bird of Ulieta, a creature once owned by the great 18th-century naturalist Joseph Banks. It soon becomes clear that Fitz is getting involved in something more complicated - and dangerous - than the search for a stuffed bird.

Single White Female meets the psychological suspense of Samantha Downing. When Eleanor Hardwicke's beloved father dies, her world is further shattered by the discovery of a gut-wrenching secret: the man she's grieving isn't her biological dad. With her personal life spiraling, a desperate Eleanor seeks out the family she never knew she had, finding an infuriatingly enviable half-sister. Perfectly perfect Victoria has everything Eleanor could ever dream of. Loving childhood, luxury home, devoted husband. And this gets Eleanor thinking - aren't good sisters supposed to share?

Connie lost her words at the age of five, the day she witnessed her mother and father's untimely death. Since then she has been all but mute, only being able to choke out a few select words. Now, years on, Connie's husband is on his deathbed, and all she can do is quietly sit by his side. But there are so many dreadful secrets locked up in Connie's silent prison. And time is running out to set them free....

Amy has her entire life planned out: marry her fiancé Josh, move out of their London flat and live happily ever after in the countryside. There's just one problem - Amy and Josh haven't had sex in 180 days. She's counted. So when Josh's family decide to throw them a surprise wedding, Amy scrambles to cross everything off her to-do list... including Josh. With the help of a glass of red wine (or two), Amy steps out of her star-patterned pyjamas and into a world of too-tight lingerie and sex-positive affirmations.

On the night Fliss loses everything - her beloved hotel ravaged by fire and fiancé exposed as a cheat - she receives devastating news: her estranged mother has died. Summoned to a dilapidated guesthouse in France for the reading of the will, Fliss is stunned to discover she has been left all her mother's possessions. As Fliss begins restoring the guesthouse, she unearths long-buried secrets about her mother, their past and the true cost of her long absence.

Following the loss of his scientist wife to cancer, a grieving step-dad is contacted by a professor wanting to honour his late wife's work with a posthumous award. Despite the ceremony taking place in Zurich he accepts, hoping that by extending the invitation to his seventeen-year-old step-daughter, in the form of an Inter-railing summer holiday across Europe, he might somehow renew their fractured relationship following eighteen months of unanswered texts and messages since she moved in with her dad, a well-known actor.

Jane Pyre was once part of the famous rock 'n' roll duo, the Lightning Bottles. Years later, she's the most hated - and least understood - woman in music. She was never as popular as her bandmate (and soulmate) Elijah Hart, despite writing the songs that catapulted them to fame. But ever since Elijah disappeared five years earlier and the band's rise to fame came crashing down, public hatred of Jane has risen to new levels and all she wants is to retreat. The last thing she expects is for the teenage girl next door - a Lightning Bottles super fan - to claim that Elijah is still alive.

Martha and Finn's marriage is hanging by a thread. Martha, crippled by paralyzing climate anxiety, finds herself at odds with Finn, who steadfastly refuses to confront the demons of his past. In a desperate attempt to repair their relationship, they join a group of privileged tourists on a pilgrimage to The Salt Centre, a mysterious retreat nestled deep within the Bolivian salt flats.

Diana 'Steve' Escott-Stevens knows what she is getting herself into. For 12 months she has fed and looked after agents preparing for a mission in France. She knows that only half of them will come back. But she is young, brave and moreover speaks fluent French. When she applies to become an agent for the Special Operations Executive she is readily accepted and sent off for training to prepare her for the field.

Liverpool 1942. Seventeen-year-old Frankie Franconi falls in love with charismatic British officer Nick Harper as quickly and certainly as the bomb that falls on their shelter. He is impressed by her good looks and intelligence, and the fact that, like him, she speaks fluent Italian. When she insists on staying to help rescue others who have been trapped he realises that she has courage, too. He gives her a business card with a Baker Street address, and suggests she put her skills to good use.

Eurovision is always the highlight of Millie's year. So when she and her best friend James get the chance to see the final live in Oslo, it's a dream come true - until they get swept up the excitement and try to break backstage, along with carefree German singer Ingrid and charismatic Australian backpacker, Noah. Getting thrown out of the stadium wasn't exactly the plan, but it might just spark the friendship - and the pact - of a lifetime. The four of them are going to reunite for every final, every year, every Eurovision.

With supply in the Scottish cities drying up, Aida is forced back home to live with her mum at their rural farm. For now, they are safe with just enough to get by. Yet at the border, tensions are close to breaking point as more and more southerners chase the delusion that Scotland is an eternal spring - while fewer and fewer are allowed through. The service station where Aida works grows emptier with every day. Then, when suspicious strangers arrive at the farm asking for help, Aida and her family face a terrible decision. How much water can they afford to share?

Meet Frankie Marks: the world's least likely fashion PR. She doesn't know the first thing about designers, she's always hungry, and she can't learn to think before she speaks. When Frankie lands a job at the prestigious GGC agency, her friends and family can't believe it - least of all her long-suffering boyfriend James. Frankie quickly realises she must fight with everything she's got to survive life behind the scenes of the glamorous and chaotic industry - with its eccentric characters, towering expectations, and quite frankly ridiculous requests.

When Fauzia's brother turns up with a dead body, her perfect life is shattered. She'll protect him to the ends of the earth, but who is he running from? Keisha knows all too well that family comes first. Reeling from rejection, she's determined to make Malton pay. And she'll hurt him in the worst way imaginable. Craig Malton is on the hunt for a violent drug lord who's wreaking havoc and destruction in Manchester. Little does he know what's coming for him.

When a late life love affair blooms between Mr. Forrest Payne, the owner of the Pink Slipper Gentleman's Club, and Miss Beatrice Jordan, famous for yelling warnings of eternal damnation at the Club's departing patrons, their wedding summons a legend to town. Mr El Walker, the great guitar bluesman, comes home to give a command performance in Plainview, Indiana, a place he'd sworn never to set foot in again.

Eoin is doing great. He's 27, gainfully employed and in a long-term relationship with his boyfriend Rich. Okay, so his best friend Jax is diving into yet another disastrously bad relationship and Eoin's going to be the one dealing with the fallout. And his boss at the café, Rebecca, seems to have vanished, so somehow Eoin's left managing the place. And to be honest, he's not got much else going on. But still, he's got his boyfriend Rich - steady, sensible and dependable Rich. That is, until Eoin's world is turned upside down when Rich announces that he wants an open relationship.

Jen is turning 30 and has spent her entire life jumping from man to man. So, when her latest relationship ends without warning, she decides to stop pleasing others and focus on herself. And where better to do that than the famously picturesque Canadian ski resort of Whistler? Okay, she can't ski and desperately needs to find a job fast, but it's nothing she can't handle. Her only rule is to stay single for the entire ski season. While Jen is throwing herself into Whistler life, Art is doing his best to keep his distance from the people who remind him of everything he once lost.