Showing results by narrator "Penelope Freeman"

Molly Peel has been downtrodden for years, but everyone has their sticking point. At her daughter’s wedding she’s side-lined in favour of her ex-husband’s new wife. Her son, who lives with her, isn’t paying his share of expenses. It’s time to move on and make a better life for her. Molly leaves London, looking for a job, and finds more than she bargained for, including a new chance of love – if she can pluck up the courage to seize the moment.

December, 1940. As German bombs fall on Southampton, the city’s residents flee to the surrounding villages. In Upton village, amid the chaos, newly married Ellen Parr finds a girl sleeping, unclaimed at the back of an empty bus. Little Pamela, it seems, is entirely alone. Ellen has always believed she does not want children, but when she takes Pamela into her home the child cracks open the past Ellen thought she had escaped and the future she and her husband, Selwyn, had dreamed for themselves. As the war rages on, love grows where it was least expected, surprising them all.

Welcome to the district nurses' home on Steeple Street, where everyone has a secret.... Ambitious young nurse Agnes Sheridan had a promising future ahead of her until a tragic mistake cost her the love and respect of everyone around her. Now she has come to Leeds for a fresh start as a trainee district nurse. But Agnes finds herself facing unexpected challenges as she is assigned to Quarry Hill, one of the city's most notorious slums.

Emma Brown is a happy-go-lucky child, content to work hard at school, and to play hopscotch with her friends on the pavement outside her house in the run-down Nechells area of Birmingham. As long as everything is all right at home with her Ma and Pa, her little sister Joyce and brother Sid, then life is good. But after Em's mother, Cynthia, has her baby she just doesn't seem to be able to cope.

An unexpected inheritance offers Libby Pullford the chance to escape her unhappy, abusive marriage and return to her Lancashire roots with her young son, Ned. But her domineering husband, Steven, won’t let her go so easily. The one person she can turn to for help is her new neighbour, former police detective Joss Atherton, to whom Libby feels a growing attraction. But Joss has troubles of his own.

Janey is 18 and living in a small flat with her baby daughter. Just as her new life starts to show promise, her past catches up with her. Nicole is renting one of the new luxury flats. She’s just walked away from her husband and teenage sons, tired of being treated as a servant, suspecting her husband of having an affair. Winifred has lived in her large family home for over 80 years but it’s all getting too much, though she doesn’t want to leave. Things are not what they seem, and danger can strike both rich and poor.

Staying at Daisy's from Sunday Times best-selling author Jill Mansell is essential reading if you love the novels of Cathy Kelly and Milly Johnson. Daisy MacLean runs the country house hotel owned by her flamboyant father, Hector. When she hears who's about to get married there, she isn't worried at all - her friend, Tara, absolutely promises there won't be any trouble between her and ex-boyfriend Dominic, whom she hasn't seen for years. But Dominic has other ideas....

She is a servant girl... When her father becomes ill, Emily Carter finds herself sent into service at Priorsfield Manor in order to provide the family with an income. He will be the Lord of the Manor... Emily strikes up an unlikely friendship with the daughters of the house, as well as Nicolas, son of the Earl. But as the threat of war comes ever closer, she becomes even more aware of the vast differences between upstairs and downstairs, servant and master...If you like Downton Abbey you’ll love this!

It's 1945 and, as the troops begin to return home, the inhabitants of London attempt to put their lives back together. For 25-year-old Millie, a qualified nurse and midwife, the jubilation at the end of the war is short-lived as she tends to the needs of the East End community around her. But while Millie witnesses tragedy and brutality in her job, she also finds strength and kindness. And when misfortune befalls her own family, it is the enduring spirit of the community that shows Millie that even the toughest of circumstances can be overcome.

Solo is a delightful romantic novel from best-selling author Jill Mansell, not to be missed by readers of Lucy Diamond and Cathy Kelly. Mad about a man who's dangerous to know? Surely it's better to go solo.... When Tessa Duvall, a struggling artist, reluctantly agreed to accompany her best friend, Holly, to a party at the elegant Charrington Grange Hotel, she had every intention of sneaking off early.

As the war takes its toll, the Nightingale nurses must do their bit for king and country... Dora is the devoted mother of twin babies, but, determined to help the war effort, she goes back to work at the Nightingale Hospital. More used to nights out in the West End, Jennifer and Cissy volunteer in the hope of tending to handsome soldiers. They soon find out that nursing isn’t quite what they were expecting.

West Yorkshire, 1926. After completing her training in Steeple Street, Agnes is looking forward to making her mark as the village's first district nurse, confident she can make a difference in the locals' lives. But when she arrives, she's treated with suspicion, labelled just another servant of the wealthy mine owners. The locals would much rather place their trust in the resident healer, Nella Black.

As the Allied troops draw closer to victory, life at Beach View Boarding House is still full of uncertainty. Rosie’s plans for her wedding to Ron Reilly are plagued with misunderstandings. And when Ron takes on a secret assignment just days before they are due to say their vows, it seems their plans for a future together may be doomed. Meanwhile, Peggy Reilly embraces her new managerial role at the uniform factory. It’s a welcome distraction while her husband, Jim, is still away fighting in the Far East.

It's the final year of training for three young nurses at The Nightingale Hospital. Helen is at a crossroads in her life as she battles with her domineering mother over both her love life and her future career. Dora can't stop loving Nick, who is married to her best friend, Ruby. Millie is anxious about her fiancé, sent to Spain to cover the Civil War, and things only get worse when she encounters a fortune teller who gives her a sinister warning.

Olivia Hanbury is widowed in the middle of WWI and reluctantly goes back to live with her parents. In the village the Vicar's wife is trying to set up a women's institute. Olivia helps her, and for the first time since her husband's death she feels useful. However, her family decide the Vicar's wife is giving her foolish ideas, so they forbid her to help any more. Instead Olivia runs away to become one of the paid organisers who is helping set up local women's institutes in Wiltshire.

Nadia Knows Best is a romance from the Sunday Times best-selling Jill Mansell, whose titles are must-listens for fans of Cathy Kelly and Lucy Diamond.

When Nadia Kinsella meets Jay Tiernan and the weather traps them in a remote Cotswold pub, she's tempted. Of course she is. But Nadia's already met the one. She and Laurie have been together for years - they're practically childhood sweethearts, and she still gets butterflies in her stomach at the sight of him.

She longed to be reunited with her family. The compelling new novel from the Sunday Times top ten bestselling author of The Workhouse Girl. Eleven-year-old Stella Barry is forced into service when her family find themselves living hand-to-mouth.Leaving her mother and younger brother and sister behind, Stella goes to a big country house outside London. When she returns home one Sunday, she discovers they have disappeared.

When novelist Sophie Carr rescues a man hiding in her garden, seeking refuge from paparazzi, she finds that her new neighbour is the ageing pop star Jez Winter. She's loved his music for years and knows that he's had a tough time lately. Life hasn't been easy for Sophie either. She lost her husband just as she was becoming successful as a novelist and she is having difficulties with her daughter Andi.

During WWI Greyladies is requisitioned by the government as a POW internment centre. Harriet is now a widow, as she has always known she would be with such a frail husband as Joseph, but now has a son and daughter to care for. The three of them go to live with Joseph’s family when Greyladies is requisitioned. Harriet is worried that all her careful renovations will be destroyed and her search for other Latimer women has to be abandoned temporarily because of the war.

London, 1914. While young men enlist up and down the country, the Nightingale Hospital has its own set of new recruits.... Anna Beck is the daughter of the best baker in Bethnal Green. Her German father built the business out of nothing, but as the shadow of war descends, his fate is at the mercy of their neighbours. Meanwhile Katie Carlyle has always wanted to become a doctor. She fought hard to get into medical school, and even now she faces prejudice from her fellow students as well as the tutors. Can she prove them wrong?