Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Women's Fiction

Seriously, why do guys on dating apps think I want a picture of what’s in their pants? I could open an art gallery with the collection I’ve got. Zoe really doesn’t want to die alone and surrounded by cats. But it’s not looking good: she’s had sex precisely twice in the last year, and her feline friend isn’t the kind of male company she wants in bed.

Six children - Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny and Louis - meet in a garden close to the sea, their voices sounding over the constant echo of the waves that roll back and forth from the shore. The book follows them as they develop from childhood to maturity and follow different passions and ambitions; their voices are interspersed with interludes from the timeless and unifying chorus of nature.

Lizzie has always had bad luck. Losing her heart to her boss leads to her losing her job, and with no money in the bank Lizzie finds herself forced to move back home with her parents. Now in her 90s, Mrs Dallimore is also coming to terms with her situation. Old age is finally catching up with her. As they form the bond of unexpected friendship, Lizzie begins to realise that she's not the only person to attract bad luck and that sometimes life has a way of surprising you....

Dotty, Lucy and Annabelle all turn up for work at Coventry's department store Owen Owen at the same time as war is declared. Dotty is an orphan, Lucy is the sole carer for her little sister, and although Annabelle has led a life of privilege until now, everyone's having to pinch the pennies at the moment. The three form an unlikely bond, and with disaster at every turn, they're going to need each other...

It's 1641, and when Midori Kumashiro, the orphaned daughter of a warlord, is told she has to leave Japan or die, she has no choice but to flee to England. Captain Nico Noordholt’s ship is her last chance, but he doesn’t really want a female passenger, especially a beautiful one. During their journey, Nico and Midori form a tentative bond, but they both have secrets that can change everything.

Charlotte has always been a good girl. But being good is getting boring. She’s not just stuck in a rut - she’s buried in it up to her chin. The only company she has in bed is the back catalogue of Netflix and falling in love feels like the stuff of fairy tales. So when she stumbles across a popular podcast, Sorry Not Sorry, which challenges women to embrace their inner bad girl, she jumps at the chance to shake things up.

Heather’s beloved daughter, Kayla, is her world. She is 15, a brilliant basketball player and a fierce friend. Heather and Kayla have always had a special relationship. For so many years it was just the two of them, watching Friends, baking cupcakes and laughing together. But now Kayla knows her time is short, and she wants to give something back to the mother she loves more than anyone else in the world. A gift that will change Heather’s life.

It's the start of a new year when resolutions are made... Maggie is stuck in a boring marriage and dreams of a life straight from the pages of a romantic novel. Ella is recovering from seven wasted years of failing to win over the daughter of the man she loves and Ethan, tired of his marriage, seeks the company of other women. Should they be careful what they wish for?

Sarah Yates is a thirty-something history teacher, divorced, disillusioned and desperate to have more excitement in her life. Then one evening the doorbell rings and the handsome and mysterious John Needler brings more excitement than Sarah could ever have imagined. John wants Sarah to go back in time trying to make sure people find their happy endings. The question is, will she ever be able to find hers?

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.

Cat McCabe is a budding sports journalist who's just been offered the chance of a lifetime - to cover the Tour de France for the Guardian. But, recently dumped by her boyfriend, she's feeling a little on the fragile side and lacking confidence. How will she survive the testosterone-fuelled cycling race? Will she succumb to the muscular thighs of the cyclists - and they to her English gorgeousness? Will her ex show up? How will she survive as one of only a handful of women in the 1,000-strong press corps?

Dottie and Mary forged a friendship over a bag of penny sweets when they were eight years old. They've shared everything together since then. Now, at seventeen, they're both shopgirls working at Woolworths. As they go out in the world in pursuit of love and happiness and life becomes more complicated, the simplicity of their childhood dissolves. The heady excitement of first love will consume them both, but the pain of unintentional betrayal will test their friendship.

1958: In a small town like Athenry, people talk. Everyone’s noticed that the injury which stopped Annie Fagan’s father from working doesn’t prevent him from hitting his wife. But a man’s home is his castle, and no one is going to intervene. Until Annie runs into Arthur ‘Sketch’ Talbot. Sketch is determined to help Annie, and the two soon fall in love. But Annie’s father won’t give his daughter up lightly, and Sketch’s attempts to save her will have devastating consequences....

Callie's life is spent caring for others – for Frey, her client, and for Noah, her brother. When a tragic car accident shatters her family, she's left alone with her mother Vanessa. Vanessa's favourite child was Noah; Callie's favourite parent was her dad. Now they're stuck with each other - the leftovers of their family - and they'll have to confront the ways they've been hurt, and the ways they've passed that hurt on to others.

Liverpool, 1963. Mary Kate Malone is 17 and bitterly unhappy that her father has married again after the death of her mother. On her last day at school, she decides to leave home in Tarabeg and head for Liverpool to find her mother's sister. But nothing goes to plan. Within hours of disembarking, she finds herself penniless and alone, with no place to stay and no idea how she will survive. Meanwhile, back in Ireland, a long-buried secret is about to come to light and a day of reckoning, in the shape of a stranger from America, will set an unstoppable chain of events in motion.

Few women in Compton Magna could fail to notice the arrival of Luca O'Brien. The village stud's new manager, known internationally as the Horse Maker, brims softly spoken sex appeal from his wild blonde curls to his leather boot soles. Gossipy riding quartet The Saddle Bags are all smitten. Only his old friend Ronnie Percy sees how much Luca's changed from the rising star she met a decade ago, the golden armour masking deep secrets. But as Ronnie soon discovers, Luca's slow smile and sympathetic hands belie a volcanic core.

In the quaint Cornish village of Tremarnock, Chabela Penhallow arrives for a holiday and to discover more about her Cornish ancestors. But, as always with newcomers to the small seaside town, rumours start to fly about this beautiful stranger. Is there more to her than meets the eye? Meanwhile, Rob and Liz Hart's marriage is on the rocks, but only one of them knows the real reason. Once the secret is out, will they be able to handle the repercussions or will it destroy their life together? For the residents of Tremarnock, the revelations will either bond or break them - forever.

Despite past heartache, Sarah Yates is finally marrying her true love, John Needler. But Sarah and John can't pretend they're an ordinary couple. They're time travellers, and where time travel is involved, nothing runs smoothly. One minute Sarah is saying her vows, and the next she is hurtled back in time to a country that is on the cusp of war. But when the past and the present collide, that's when the real problems start....

Queenie Brogan wasn't always an East End matriarch. Many years ago, before she married Fergus, she was Philomena Dooley, a daughter of Irish Travellers, planning to wed her childhood sweetheart, Patrick. But when tragedy struck and his narrow-minded sister, Nora, intervened, the lovers were torn apart. Fate can be cruel, and when Queenie arrives in London she finds that Patrick Mahon is her parish priest, and that the love she had tried to suppress flares again in her heart. But now in the final months of WW2, Queenie discovers Father Mahon is dying and must face losing him forever.

Mary Kate Malone has come to Liverpool from Ireland to seek her fortune, but from the very beginning things have gone wrong. Now she is living secretly with her great love, Dr Nicholas Marcus, while his wife, Lavinia, mother of his two sons, plots her revenge on the girl she believes has destroyed her marriage. When disaster strikes, Mary Kate's first instinct is to flee to her family in Ireland. But back in Tarabeg, a charismatic American stranger has set the village by the ears, and it isn't the place Mary Kate remembers any more.