Showing titles in 20th Century

In 1942, Charlotte Gray, a young Scottish woman, goes to Occupied France on a dual mission: to run an apparently simple errand for a British special operations group and to search for her lover, an English airman who has gone missing in action. In the small town of Lavaurette, Sebastian Faulks presents a microcosm of France and its agony in 'the black years'. Here is the full range of collaboration, from the tacit to the enthusistic, as well as examples of extraordinary courage and altruism.

Belinda Layton is a surplus girl. One of the many women whose dreams of marriage perished in the Great War, with the death of her beloved fiancé, Ben. After four years of mourning, she finally feels ready to face whatever her future holds without him. But Ben's family can't countenance her putting him to rest, while all her own family care about is getting hold of her meagre factory wages. When Belinda joins a secretarial class to try to better herself, little does she imagine that it will open up a whole new world to her.

Ireland, 1912. Fourteen members of a small village set sail on RMS Titanic, hoping to find a better life in America. For 17-year-old Maggie Murphy, the journey is bittersweet. Though her future lies in an unknown new place, her heart remains in Ireland with the sweetheart she left behind. Chicago, 1982. Adrift after the death of her father, Grace Butler struggles to decide what comes next. When her Great Nana Maggie shares the painful secret she harboured for almost a lifetime about the Titanic, the revelation gives Grace new direction.

New York, 1925: Arthur Kenzie is on a mission: to destroy the powerful supernatural relic that threatens Manhattan - and all the nonmagical minds in the world. So far his search has been fruitless. All it has done is keep him from the man he loves. But he'll do anything to keep Rory safe and free, even if that means leaving him behind. Psychometric Rory Brodigan knows his uncontrolled magic is a liability, but he's determined to gain power over it. He can take care of himself - and maybe even Arthur, too, if Arthur will let him.

Devastated after both my fiancée and best friend betrayed me, I traveled to a distant isle in the Pacific Northwest, clinging to a job as an artist's assistant to escape my broken heart. Little did I know that I would find something else entirely when I met Briggs Tutheridge. His kindness and sensitivity were not at all what I expected. Still, his reputation was well-known and notorious, with bevies of admirers who wanted nothing more than a brief affair. That wasn't me. I was a wallflower destined to live in the shadows, and no amount of wishing could change that.

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.

Carey is immediately attracted to the handsome yet reserved cattle station owner. But Oliver seems more interested in a practical business arrangement than a true love match. Oliver's bossy sister, Millicent, doesn't help matters. She soon makes it clear that the young new bride doesn't match up to her expectations. Glamorous Jane Newbold adds to Carey's insecurities. Jane and Oliver have a history. But does she still have a place in Oliver's heart?

Melbourne, 1945. Born into a well-to-do family, Maggie Johnson wants freedom from her parents' strict conservative beliefs and their unbending desire for her to marry the right sort of man. Instead, Maggie longs to forge her own path in life. Lil Kelly, who lives in the slums, works tirelessly to care for her mother and sister. Lil looks for contentment wherever she can find it, not daring to dream of more. When their paths cross during the exhilarating celebrations of Victory in the Pacific Day, they form a secret friendship.

Spring, 1941. The families of Jubilee Row are still reeling from the loss of one of their own, and as the Blitz on Hull intensifies, it seems as if there will be more tragedies to come. As the street braces itself, capable mum Ruby Maguire takes charge as usual, bolstering spirits and lending a hand, as well as keeping her flighty sister Pearl on the straight and narrow. But the unexpected appearance of a face from her past threatens Ruby's future far more than Hitler's bombs. Meanwhile, the other inhabitants of Jubilee Row are finding love - and hope - in the most unexpected places.

Hampshire, UK, 2015. When Chloe Harper’s beloved grandmother, Lena dies, a stranger hands her Lena’s wartime diary. Chloe sets out to uncover deep family secrets that Lena guarded to her grave. Darjeeling, India, 1943, Lena Chatterjee leaves the confines of a strict boarding school to work as assistant to Lieutenant George Harper, an officer in the British Indian Army. She accompanies him to Nepal and deep into the Himalayas to recruit Gurkhas for the failing Burma Campaign. There, she discovers that Lieutenant Harper has a secret, which she vows never to reveal.

Shortly before the Japanese invade, the van Hoorn family throws their famous Sinterklaas party at their tea plantation in West Java. One of their guests, Mattijs, a Dutch pilot, hopes to forge a future in the Dutch East Indies, possibly with the family's daughter Anna, but she is torn between her dreams of Holland and her desire to belong. Meanwhile the housekeeper, Diah, keenly observes the goings-on around the plantation, wondering how much to tell her freedom-fighter brother.

It is 1974. Indu has inherited a flat from her grandmother and wants to turn it into a library for women. Her parents think this will keep her suitably occupied till she marries her fiancé, Rajat, who's away studying in London. But then she meets Rana, a young lawyer with sparkling wit and a heart of gold. He helps set up the library, and their days light up with playful banter and the many Rajesh Khanna movies they watch together. When the Emergency is declared, Indu's life turns upside down.

New York, 1925: Psychometric Rory Brodigan's life hasn't been the same since the day he met Arthur Kenzie. Arthur's continued quest to contain supernatural relics that pose a threat to the world has captured Rory's imagination - and his heart. But Arthur's upper-class upbringing still leaves Rory worried that he'll never measure up, especially when Arthur's aristocratic ex arrives in New York.

Twenty-five years ago, Martin Roth made the most difficult decision of his life. He gave up the girl he loved, married a different woman, and raised a family. But he's just been given another shot at happiness. Sylvia has loved Martin since she was a young girl. They have two great children and a wonderful life together - until a love from Martin's past threatens everything she's worked so hard to build. Jenny McCoy can't believe she and Martin have found each other again - but she's never gotten over his cruel betrayal.

Orkney, 1940. Five hundred Italian prisoners-of-war arrive to fortify these remote and windswept islands. Resentful islanders are fearful of the enemy in their midst, but not orphaned twin sisters Dorothy and Constance. Already outcasts, they volunteer to nurse all prisoners who are injured or fall sick. Soon Dorothy befriends Cesare, an artist swept up by the machine of war and almost broken by the horrors he has witnessed. She is entranced by his plan to build an Italian chapel from war scrap and sea debris, and something beautiful begins to blossom.

No one is more surprised than Meredith when she’s bequeathed a cottage by a great aunt she’d never heard of. She hopes, briefly, that the inheritance could be the answer to her financial problems. But when she arrives in Suffolk, she is shocked to discover a man is already living there. A young gardener, who claims he was also bequeathed half of Butterfly Cottage. As the pair try to unravel their complicated situation, they unearth a decades old mystery involving Clara, the garden, and a stack of letters left unread for over 50 years.

From acclaimed romance writer Rexanne Becnel comes a story of passion and hidden identity in the post-war American South. As a dark figure on horseback approaches the resplendent Louisiana estate of Sparrow Hill, a chill runs through Lacie Montgomery, the lovely head of the Sparrow Hill School for Young Ladies, because she is not exactly who she appears to be - and the exposure of her darkest secret could mean the closing of her beloved school and the end of its rightful place in the Kimbell family legacy.

Ceylon, 1935. Louisa Reeve, the daughter of a successful British gem trader, and her husband, Elliot, a charming, thrill-seeking businessman, seem like the couple who have it all. Except what they long for more than anything: a child. While Louisa struggles with miscarriages, Elliot is increasingly absent, spending much of his time at a nearby cinnamon plantation overlooking the Indian ocean.

Mrs Olga Stych, daughter of an immigrant Ukrainian pig farmer, has finally made it to the top of the social pyramid of Tollemarche, a small town in Canada’s Bible Belt. But to get there, she has not only had to see off her most determined rival, she has also had to neglect her son Hank. With enemies outside her home, and a latchkey kid inside—Hank was left to fend for himself—Olga little realises that the moment of her decline is to arrive just when she appears to be at her most triumphant.

It’s 1926, and Anna Darton is on the run from a terrible crime she was forced into committing. Alone and scared in London, salvation comes in the form of Nancy, a sassy American dancer at the notorious nightclub, The Zip. Reinventing herself as Vita Casey, Anna becomes part of the lineup and is thrown into a hedonistic world of dancing, parties, flapper girls and fashion. When she meets the dashing Archie Fenwick, Vita buries her guilty conscience, and she believes him when he says he will love her no matter what.