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

Cassandra Blake has raised her three motherless sisters. The girls are the pride of their book-loving, impractical father, and not in a hurry to marry. Then the American Civil War cuts off supplies of cotton to Lancashire, the mills fall silent and there is no work. There is a stark choice: stay and risk starvation or pack up and begin again elsewhere. Cassandra has fallen in love with Reece Gregory, but he can't support a wife. When he's given the chance to start a new life in Western Australia, he seizes the opportunity, promising to send for her.

She thought the worst was behind her.... Life is tough in Lancashire in 1905 - and especially so for 15-year-old Mary Ann, who was born out of wedlock. When her new stepfather begins to abuse her, Mary Ann doesn't know how much more she can take - until the worst happens and she is sent away to bear his child. After the birth, she manages to escape to Blackpool with the help of her new friend Gabriel. Years later, the Great War brings Mary Ann many new opportunities, and brings Gabriel back into her life - but circumstances mean they can never be together.

London, 2017. When her beloved grandmother, Sylvie, sends her to Paris to retrieve a dress she wore decades before. But not everything is as it seems, and the long-buried secrets she discovers, hidden in a collection of priceless Dior gowns, could change everything. Paris, 1952. Post-war France is full of glamour and privilege, and Alice Ainsley is in the middle of it all. As the wife to the British ambassador to France, her life is a whirlwind of jewels, banquets and couture dresses, but beneath the glittering façade, Alice is suffocating in a loveless marriage.

It's 1848, and preparations are underway for Annie Gibson's wedding to Bilsden's wealthy millowner, Frederick Hallam. But not everyone is as pleased as they are. Frederick's daughter, Beatrice, is horrified at the prospect of a new attractive stepmother arriving at the house on Ridge Hill. Even Annie's own family feels threatened. The only person who seems pleased is Tom, Annie's brother. Soon, however, real troubles begin to pile up for the Gibsons.

The seventh novel in Anthony Riches' acclaimed Empire sequence brings Marcus Aquila back to Rome, hunting the men who destroyed his family. But the revenge he craves may cost him and those around him dearly. The young centurion's urge to exact his own brutal justice upon the shadowy cabal of assassins who butchered his family means that he must face them on their own ground, risking his own death at their hands. A senator, a gang boss, a praetorian officer and, deadliest of all, champion gladiator Mortiferum - the Death Bringer - lie in wait.

Little Billy, Polly's son, is the light of her life. It's for his sake that she puts up with an unkind mother-in-law and life on an isolated farm. When Billy is knocked down by a car, his father is killed attempting to save his life, and Polly, cast off by her husband's family, is left with a child who may never walk or talk again. Polly turns to her own family for support, but they are unable to outmanoeuvre the malicious Dr Browning-Baker, who is determined to have Billy taken away from his mother, depriving him of the exercises and stimulation that are his only hope.

When Vivian Howe, author of 13 novels and mother of three grown-up children, is killed in a hit-and-run incident while jogging near her home, she ascends to the Beyond. Because her death was unfair, she is allowed to watch what happens below with her children, her best friend, her ex-husband and a rival novelist whose book is coming out the same day as Vivi's. Vivi is also given the use of three 'nudges' so that she can influence the outcome of events in the world of the living.

Bram Deagan dreams of bringing his family from Ireland to join him in Australia, where he now runs a successful trading business. But when a typhus epidemic strikes Ireland, it leaves the Deagan family decimated. And, with other family members scattered round the world, it is left to Maura Deagan to look after her orphaned nieces and nephew. Forced to abandon her own ambitions, and unsure whether she is ready to become a mother-figure to three young children, Maura recognises that their only hope is to join Bram in far away Australia.

For aspirational parents living in the beautiful coastal town of Pacific Pines, their hopes and dreams are pinned on the outcome of the Gala Day that St Ignatius Boys' School hosts every year. To be accepted into the prestigious institution, the boys must battle it out in rigorous rounds of both physical and mental testing - but it seems that some parents will stop at nothing to ensure their sons succeed. But after one boy is struck down in a hit and run, the scandals, secrets and lies that entangle three mothers threaten to unravel their seemingly perfect lives.

Number One bestselling author Jodi Picoult returns with her compulsive new novel - about the lengths we go to for those who have left us behind; about the staying power of love; and about how three broken souls might have just the right pieces to mend each other. Jenna Metcalf was with her mother the night she disappeared in tragic and mysterious circumstances, but she remembers nothing.

Caroline Cliburn was to be married next Tuesday, and yet she suspected that gratitude was the wrong reason to become a bride. Perhaps that was why she and her younger brother Jody had taken the long drive north to Scotland in search of her missing brother Angus.... When a sudden spring blizzard leaves them stranded by the roadside, it is the snow that gives both her and a lonely young Scot one last chance to find the healing warmth of love.

From the outside the parents of the kindergarten class at Darley Heights primary school seem to have it all. Living in the wealthy Sydney suburbs, it's a community where everyone knows each other - and secrets don't stay secret for long. The big date in the calendar is the school's annual fundraising trivia night, but when the evening gets raucously out of hand, talk turns to partner-swapping. Initially scandalised, it's not long before a group of parents make a reckless one-night-only pact. But in the harsh light of day, those involved must face the fallout of their behaviour.

Todd Bowden is an apt pupil. Good grades, good family, a paper route. But he is about to meet a different kind of teacher, Mr Dussander, and to learn all about Dussander's dark and deadly past...a decades-old manhunt Dussander has escaped to this day. Yet Todd doesn't want to turn his teacher in. Todd wants to know more. Much more. He is about to face his fears and learn the real meaning of power - and the seductive lure of evil.

My name is Justine Stone. I left home twelve years ago, never to return. Now my ex-boyfriend, Jake, has been accused of a double murder in the town where we grew up. It's my job as a barrister to make the case against him. But to face the courts, I need to know the truth. The real truth about what happened when we were young - not just the story I'll spin the jury. To reach the heart of it, I must face up to the part my own family played.

1945 - the war in Europe is over. It should be a time of utter joy and celebration. Most women can't wait for their men to return, but in the small town of Rivenshaw in Lancashire, Judith Crossley fears having her husband back in the house. He'd grown into a bully and a drunkard, and on the occasions he'd come home from leave, he'd hit her. He wasn't a good father, either. Luckily Judith has found an unlikely ally, a friend to turn to - Maynard Esher, from an old aristocratic family on the other side of town.

Reeling from a bad break-up, Lizbet Keaton is desperately seeking a fresh start. When she's named the new general manager of the Hotel Nantucket, a Gilded Age gem whose glamour has been left to tarnish, she hopes that her local expertise and charismatic staff can transform the hotel's fortunes—and her own. All she needs to do is win over their new billionaire owner from London, Xavier Darling—and the wildly popular Instagram influencer Shelly Carpenter, who can help put them back on the map.

Humble layman Will Bowman lives in the countryside with his pregnant wife, when soldiers from Richard Lionheart's army tear through his home. Will is beaten unconscious, and awakes to find his wife murdered, his farm burnt down, and his life forever changed. In vengeance, Will infiltrates Richard's army to find the marauding gang, and finds himself swept along in the march of the Crusades. With the help of new allies and fuelled by his loss, Will crosses Europe with the King's army.

Following his recovery after a savage wounding in America, Kydd returns to England to re-assume command of his ship-of-the-line, Thunderer, which is sent to the remote station of Bermuda.

Lancashire, 1931. When Finn Carlisle loses his wife and unborn child, he spends a few years travelling to keep the sad memories at bay. Just as he's ready to settle down again, his great-uncle dies and leaves everything to him. This includes Heythorpe House in Ellindale, just down the road from Leah Willcox and her little fizzy drink factory.

On a red-eye flight from LA to Boston, 10 passengers wake up to discover everyone else has disappeared. Brian Engle, a trained pilot, remembers something about a strange aurora borealis and turbulence reports over the desert. Now he has to try to land the plane. But the safe haven of Bangor airport is not what it seems. It's eerily empty. The clocks have stopped. The food and drink is tasteless. The fuel doesn't burn. And the sound, like 'radio static', is getting closer. Craig Toomy, an investment banker, believes he knows what's coming....