Showing results by author "AnneMarie Brear" in All Categories

1914, Australia: As war is declared, the idyllic world of Blue Water Station is torn apart when Oliver, the eldest grandson and heir, shares his desire to enlist in the army. His enthusiasm ignites his brother, cousins and friends to do the same but upsets his sister, Tilly. After a tragic family incident, she is left to run the cattle station and take care of the older folk. A chance meeting with a sophisticated lieutenant opens up a friendship through letters, but it’s a rogue stockman who attracts her attention - with dire consequences....

From the best-selling author of The Slum Angel. After losing her father, Thea Goodson is alone in the world. She has a husband. But Ernie is a brutal man who uses his fists to keep Thea in line. And besides, Ernie Goodson has secrets – secrets that even his wife cannot share. And yet in Victorian Yorkshire, appearances are everything - and they must be maintained whatever the cost. Thea has no choices but to cover up her bruises with powder and keep a forced smile on her face while she looks after Ernie’s home and tobacco shop.

1879: Shipwrecked off the West Coast of Australia, Louisa Reynolds is aided by an aboriginal girl and a kindly doctor, eventually making a fresh start in the town of Albany. Unexpected new friendships with two men, old gentleman George and dashing Connor, give her joy - but when she accepts an invitation to stay at George's sheep station, the locals are scandalised by a single woman in the company of men.

The Scottish Highlands, 1899. A life-altering event led Catrina Davies to hide from her family and society. But Travis Millard, the man she used to love, finds her, and she agrees to marry him and to return to her family estate, Davmoor Court in Yorkshire. But while her father clings to life, Davmoor is nearly ruined by her brother's gambling obsession. As Catrina adjusts to her regained position in society, her marriage comes under attack from Travis' grandmother, who has her own reason for loathing the family.

London, 1929. Lady Alice Mayton-Walsh has always been a free independent spirit. With wealth and position, Alice defies convention and created, Sheer, a women's magazine. However, after years of hard work, she finds that her life isn't as complete as she expected it to be. Then her brother's best friend Vince reveals plans to marry an heiress to save his family's fortunes. The news shocks Alice as she realises she wants more than just friendship with him. Yet, before she has a chance to follow her heart, Vince turns his back on the extravagant life.

The eldest of seven daughters, Grace must act as a buffer between her violent, ambitious father and the sisters who depend on her, while her disenchanted mother withdraws to her rooms. Rejected by her first love and facing a spinster's future, she struggles to hold the broken family together through her father's infidelity, one sister's alcoholism, and another's out-of-wedlock pregnancy by an unsuitable match.

Aurora Pettigrew has a loving family, a nice home, a comfortable life. She's waiting for the right man to offer marriage, and the man for her is Reid Sinclair, heir to the Sinclair fortune. But Reid's mother is against the match and unearths a secret that will tear Aurora's world apart. Unwilling to bring shame on her family and needing answers, Aurora moves to York. By chance, she reconnects with a man from her past, and before he leaves with the army to war in South Africa, he offers her security through marriage.

It's a time of coming together, yet sisters Prue and Cece have very different ideas about how to celebrate the holiday, and their clash of personalities also causes damage to their hearts. All Millie wants is a happy home, yet her warring sisters try her patience, and she's stuck in the middle! Not only that, but her husband, Jeremy, is dealing with his own problems regarding his parentage, her mother is acting strangely and her grandmother is as opinionated as always! Will Christmas at the Chateau bring the family together or tear them apart?

It’s 1850, and the Noble family have travelled to the other side of the world to start a new life after scandal drove them from their native England. Pippa Noble is determined to reclaim their honour by making her father’s plan for an outback farm a reality, although her ambition is frowned upon by a society that has very set ideas about a woman’s place. Pippa learns the hard way about the unforgiving nature of the bush, sometimes with devastating consequences.

Halifax, 1876. On the death of her mother and sister, Isabelle Gibson is left to fend for herself and her brother in a privately run workhouse. After the matron's son attacks her, Isabelle decides to escape by agreeing to marry a farmer she has never met. But Farrell is a drunkard and in constant feud with his landlord, Ethan Harrington. When he deserts her, Isabelle and Ethan are thrown together. But both are married and must hide their growing love.

Audrey Pearson's life changed dramatically when WWII broke out and her large home, Twelve Pines on the East Yorkshire coast, became a convalescence home for wounded soldiers. Her life is no longer lavish, with entertainment and beautiful clothes and surrounded by a loving family. Soldiers, physically and mentally wounded, now fill her home. The smell of disinfectant replaces her mother's perfume, and gone are the friends and acquaintances - instead nurses roam the hallways.

1867: Nicola Douglas attends a lecture given by Miss Maria Rye, the founder of the Female Middle Class Emigration Society, which inspires her to change her life. With no family, but a good education, she boards a ship to Australia with high hopes of a fresh start in a new country as a governess. Sydney is full of young women with similar ambitions and poor prospects - but when a wealthy benefactor appears, she finds a foothold. What she never anticipated was the attention of two suitors: Nathaniel, a privileged and attractive English gentleman; and Hilton, a beguiling American.

Everyone thinks Lexi is crazy when she falls in love with Hollingsworth House, a crumbling old Georgian mansion in Yorkshire – and nobody more so than her husband, Dylan. But there’s something very special about the place, and Lexi can sense it. Whilst exploring the grounds, she stumbles across an old diary, and within its pages she meets Allie, an Australian nurse who worked in France during the First World War. Lexi finally realises her dream of buying Hollingsworth, but her obsession with the house leaves her marriage in tatters.

Fleur Stanthorpe, an Australian, arrives in Whitby to live out a dream after surviving cancer. She plans to rent a shop and open a bookshop café and experience the English way of life for the summer before returning home and settling down. Only, she hasn’t counted on meeting gorgeous Irishman Patrick Donnelly. Their attraction is instant, their goals a world apart. He’s looking for a solid relationship for the first time since his divorce five years ago, while she’s having her last fling at freedom before returning home to family and responsibilities.

Victoria Carlton wurde als Waisenkind von ihrem Onkel, einem Bankier, großgezogen, und auf eine standeswürdige Heirat und eine Zukunft als Dame der Gesellschaft vorbereitet worden. Ihr gutes Herz jedoch zwingt sie, armen Familien in den Slums zu helfen, sehr zum Missfallen ihrer Familie. Als ihr Onkel plötzlich stirbt, gibt ihre Cousine ihr die Schuld daran und sie wird mit leeren Händen des Hauses verwiesen. Victoria bleibt nichts anderes übrig als in den Armenvierteln neu anzufangen—in einer Welt voller ihr unbekannter Gefahren.