Showing titles in City Life

Sophy Stevens is moving to Australia. Turning thirty has found her unexpectedly out of a job, out of a relationship, and just in need of Something Different - and Australia, where she can finally meet her grandparents and surprise them on their wedding anniversary, looks like the perfect answer...if she can save up the money for the plane ticket. So when her feckless, absent dad Johnno offers her a job at his vintage clothes shop in Primrose Hill, she can't turn it down.

Spanning four decades in the mid-nineteenth century, the interconnected novellas of Old New York lay out the complex and inscrutable codes, customs, and taboos of New York society in classic Wharton style.

Life-long friends Louisa, Jeannie and Kate are following in the footsteps of their families, working at the Clarks shoe factory. But when Britain declares war on Germany, the Somerset village of Street is shaken to its core. The Clarks factory is at the heart of life in the village, but the Clark family are Quakers and pacifists. Before long, there are fierce debates amongst the workers and tensions between those who oppose the war and those who believe the village men should go to fight.

Meet five bachelor brothers and the women who bring them to their knees in this USA Today best-selling series! When Cole North volunteers to be his boss Sierra’s fake date, nothing goes as expected. Can the lifelong loner evolve from her right-hand man at work to the right man for her forever? Carefree Drake North is fully aware his best friend’s little sister is off-limits, but when she sets her sights on him, he can’t get her off his mind. Can he give up his noncommittal ways and become the caring man she deserves?

A week-long spa break is just what Jess needs. She’s going to be there with her best friends, Stella and Em. And the spa is so high-end it has an ethos about cleansing the mind and soul. The laughter, gourmet food and cocktails are what every twenty-something needs. And then there’s the beautiful man she spots in the pool on the first day. A perfect addition to her week. Until Jess finds out that he’s someone from her past. Someone she really should have recognized. Someone she should not find attractive. And that’s when things start getting a little confusing…

Abandoned, penniless and orphaned as young children, Bertram and Alice saved each other from a terrible fate. For seven long years they have been kept apart, Bertram, BJ to his friends, learning how to survive and then thrive in the penal colonies of Australia, and Alice growing her prosperous chain of bakeries in the Black Country town of Wednesbury. Now BJ’s sentence is nearly up and he has a choice to make. Queen Victoria’s England has changed since he’s been away and so has Alice. Should he leave behind the life he’s built and face the terrifying, months-long voyage back home?

Kash owes a lot of money. His restaurant, specialising in exotic meats and catering to New York’s elite, was doing well. Then business dried up, and now Boris the loan shark wants his investment back. But Kash has a plan. There’s a rumour of a dinner club, hosted in turns by billionaires. Lots of ego, and lots of money. If Kash can get the gig, it would pay off Boris and then some. He will need to offer something new, something that five of the richest men on the planet will have never tasted before. Something entirely unprecedented …

Jessie doesn’t believe in love at first sight. Until one sunny Saturday in London, a fire alarm in Whole Foods throws her into a stranger's arms. Cal is charming and funny: their chemistry is instant. Quick-fire flirting turns into the most romantic day of Jessie’s life. But that evening they're forced apart before swapping numbers. Jessie is devastated – has she just lost the one? After weeks of searching, Cal turns up on her doorstop holding two dozen red roses. It feels like fate. The only thing is, they’re not for her…

Detective Lola is heading back over the river from a rare night out when she spots a crowd of people looking over the parapet. Someone’s gone in. A young man called Cammy witnessed everything. He swears it’s the work of the Clyde Pusher, but is terrified of the police. The Clyde Pusher is the stuff of urban legend. A hooded figure who throws men into the river to drown. Eight victims in five years. But according to the police, the Pusher doesn’t exist. There are no reliable witnesses, nothing to link the victims.

A woman meets her next-door neighbor and loans her a spatula, then starts suffering horrific gaps in her memory. A man, feeling jilted by an unrequited love, becomes obsessed with sorting through his neighbors' garbage in the belief that it will teach him how to better relate to people. A landlord decides to raise the rent, and his tenants hatch a plan to kill him at a team-building retreat. In 10 captivating, unnerving stories, Flowers of Mold presents a range of ordinary individuals who have found themselves left behind by an increasingly urbanized and fragmented world.

Mistake #1: One scorching night with Jacob Walker, Chicago Blade's notorious playboy and my brother's best friend. Mistake #2: Agreeing to be his fake fiancé to save his career. Mistake #3: Falling for the man who doesn't know he's about to become our baby's daddy. Jacob has a body forged in steel and a smile that can melt the ice… he's every woman's fantasy. I'm the team's new strait-laced PR executive tasked with cleaning up his image... while hiding my growing secret. Whenever he holds me close for the cameras, it feels less like pretend.

Paras is a spirited young racehorse living in a stable in the French countryside. That is until one afternoon when she pushes open the gate of her stall and, travelling through the night, arrives quite by chance in the dazzling streets of Paris. She soon meets a German shorthaired pointer named Frida, two irrepressible ducks and an opinionated crow, and life amongst the animals in the city’s lush green spaces is enjoyable for a time.

As war rages and brave soldiers returning home from the frontline need nurses more than ever, fiercely proud redhead Sylvia Roberts is determined to help in any way she can. In spite of her mother’s belief she isn’t good enough, Sylvia believes that becoming a home front nurse is her calling. Together with the two friends she makes on her first day in the job – Freda and Veronica – she knows she can help save lives. And, as the devastation of war shows no signs of ceasing, their work becomes ever more vital.

From the internationally bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Interpreter of Maladies comes an exquisitely crafted work of fiction. Jhumpa Lahiri sets her gaze on the eternally beautiful city, illuminating the frailties of the human condition and dissecting lives lived on the margins.

When Rolling Stone journalist Kayla McCray is assigned a cover story on pop icon Lexi Mayhem, Kayla stumbles across a startling new angle to the exposé. Years ago, another rising star from Lexi’s past mysteriously leaped to her death. Some things are better off forgotten, Lexi says. Kayla disagrees. It’s 2005 and Ava Petrova moves to New York with a notebook full of songs and a dream. Then she meets Lexi, an up-and-coming singer who brands Ava with an enigmatic new stage name and introduces her to an intoxicating city alive with possibilities.

In the 1920s, three young girls enter a strict, cheerless convent school in a quiet London suburb. Six years later they leave, to change the world … Maureen was the movie star, whose role as Tarzan’s Jane helped rewrite the rules of cinema censorship. Sonia was the aspiring writer who became George Orwell’s wife and the guardian of his literary legacy. And Vivien was the actress as iconic as the roles she played, from Cleopatra to Scarlett O’Hara. Together their careers encompassed glamour and tragedy, triumph and scandal.

The Cities Classics Collection: London, Paris, New York allows you to step into the vibrant streets of three of the world's most iconic cities through a carefully curated collection of literary masterpieces. From the foggy alleys of London to the grand boulevards of Paris, and the buzzing avenues of New York, these stories bring to life the essence of urban life, capturing the triumphs, tragedies, and timeless experiences of the people who shaped these cities.

Having sold her photography studio in the UK, Freya Johnson is now living the American dream, engaged to Hollywood film star, Nicholas Kaden. Finally, her past is behind her and the only way is up. But with a wedding to plan and a whole heap of charity work to organise, she could do without the reappearance of her childhood sweetheart, Jonny Sanders. He’s rich, he’s better looking than she remembers and he reminds her of all those times she’d rather forget. When a flippant comment made during a hospital visit ends up as headline news, suddenly everything is in turmoil.

Vera Abramowitz is determined to leave her gritty childhood behind and live a more exciting life, one that her mother never dreamed of. Bobbing her hair and showing her knees, the lipsticked beauty dazzles. As the ultimate flapper, Vera captures the attention of two high rollers, a handsome nightclub owner and a sexy gambler. On their arms, she gains entrée into a world filled with bootleg bourbon, wailing jazz, and money to burn. She thinks her biggest problem is choosing between them until the truth comes out. Her two lovers are really mobsters from rival gangs....

My fiancé was found dead. I was on a hunt for the beast who murdered him. I didn't mean to fall into the devil's sculpted arms. Lorenzo Duretti's touch became my obsession—his darkness, my desire. Now, I'm torn between revenge and protection. I need both. Because the baby in my womb will be bound to his father's deadly empire. Lorenzo swears he'll keep us safe, but how can I trust a ruthless killer?