Showing results by publisher "Soundings" in Genre Fiction

East Kent, 1830. Catherine Rook takes her peaceful life for granted. Her days are spent at the village school and lending a hand on her family's farm. But rural unrest begins sweeping through Kent, and when Pa Rook buys a threshing machine it brings tragedy to Wanstall Farm. With the Rooks' fortunes forever changed, Catherine must struggle to hold her family together. She turns to her childhood companion, Matty Carter, for comfort, and finds more than friendship in his loving arms.

The year is 1832, and great change and reform are sweeping England, but 23-year-old Joshua Weyland is languishing in Key West, USA. He was third mate on the schooner Jessica, which ran aground in suspicious circumstances, and the skipper has been arrested on charges of deliberately wrecking his ship. Josh is eager to get back to England to marry his fiancée, so he ships as second mate on a brig bound for Bristol. But when the ship founders off the coast of Cornwall, it's clear it's been deliberately wrecked.

Eighteen-year-old Debbie Hargreaves is heading to college in Leeds, where she'll be sharing digs with three girls. Debbie soon becomes firm friends with shy Lisa, outspoken Karen and self-assured Fran. Over the coming months, the four flatmates will share tears and laughter and the drama of a new romance. At the same time, Debbie's birth mother, Fiona Norwood, is struggling to cope with four young children and her duties as a rector's wife.

Victoria Bell and Rosie Killeen are best friends. Growing up in rural Ireland's County Mayo, their friendship is forged against the glorious backdrop of Ennismore House. However, Victoria, born of the aristocracy, and Rosie, daughter of a local farmer, both find that the disparity of their class and the simmering social tension in Ireland will push their friendship to the brink.... Both girls leave the idyllic Ennismore of their childhood to move to the gritty, politically charged streets of Dublin.

Happily married to the Reverend Simon Norwood, Fiona Norwood's happiness should be complete. But Fiona has a secret in her past, and she can never forget the baby girl she gave away at birth. Meanwhile, Debbie Hargreaves has known since she was a little girl that she was adopted. Her parents are kind and loving and she has a happy home life. Despite that, once she reaches her teenage years, Debbie determines to find out about her birth mother. But is the past sometimes best left alone?

Industry in Yorkshire is booming and the cities are expanding. But this growth comes at a price: a valley in Nidderdale is doomed to be dammed and flooded to quench the cities' thirst. Rachel Garnett is determined to fight for her lovely valley and their way of life. Working against her is a young engineer, Roger Beckwith, who is planning a reservoir that will swamp the parish of Firby. Rachel works at Firby Hall, an Elizabethan mansion that will be demolished when the reservoir is built.

When a couple renovate a beautiful 17th-century house in the Cotswolds, they discover the ghosts of the Civil War are still in residence. As Guy and Ruth delve into the property's history, uncovering both joy and sorrow, the house finally relinquishes its secrets, revealing how closely the family from the past is intertwined with the present-day owners. Why do they seem so familiar? Have they perhaps met before?

While her mother is at home giving birth, 11-year-old Isa must look after her younger siblings, but when her little sister is killed in an accident on a train line she carries the guilt through the rest of her life. As Isa grows up, more tragedy strikes. Yet there is only so much Isa can endure over the years, and discovering her husband’s affair is the final straw. Believing she has failed as a sister, a daughter, a wife and a mother, she makes an irrevocable decision....

Freddie Barcussy knows hardship and pain. His parents Annie and Levi are struggling to make ends meet, both suffering with illness and poverty. Freddie is an outsider at school, misunderstood and angry. They need their luck to change. Unbeknown to his parents, Freddie holds the key to their future. If he can learn how to overcome his fears, he could change their lives forever. Can Freddie find love and happiness or will mistrust ruin his life?

By the summer of 1916, there is still no end to the war in sight and in the Sussex village of Ashden, optimism has given way to stoicism. While George Lilley leaves the Rectory to join the Royal Flying Corps, each of his four sisters finds her own way of contributing to the war effort. Gradually coming to terms with her broken engagement, Caroline Lilley numbly continues with her agricultural work at home, until tragedy forces her into leaving Ashden.

When a valuable cargo ship is abandoned in the mid-Atlantic, Captain Barling of the SS Hopeful Enterprise has his own special reasons for wishing to tow it into port. But is he justified in risking men's lives for the sake of his own desires? Shipmate Adam Loder thinks it is nothing but a wild goose chase and chief engineer Jonah Madden is worried about his ailing engines; but Charlie Wilson is hiding a deeper concern.

Mesopotamia, 1916. The Turks order prisoners from the siege of Kut to march the hundreds of miles to Baghdad. The men are weak from starvation after the five-month siege, with many suffering from dysentery, scabies, and malaria. They have no medical supplies. And then the hot weather begins.... Hundreds of men die on the march, the stragglers killed by Arab tribesmen; those too ill to move are left behind to die.

Connie Morgan works in the haberdashery department of a large Southampton store, and is in love with her married boss. But everything changes when she's swept off her feet by dashing young car mechanic Sam. Having fallen head over heels for Sam, Connie is anxious to end her adulterous affair with John Baker. But John isn't going to let her go that easily, and Connie knows that if Sam ever finds out about her relationship with a married man, he will end everything, dashing all her dreams.

Molly's perfect life comes crashing down following the unexpected death of her husband David. She is left alone with a big, old house to maintain, finances in disarray and her hopes for happiness in a heap. But Molly is a survivor. Despite objections from her two daughters, Molly fears that the only solution will be to sell their beloved home.

Following heavy casualties, General Townsend withdraws his exhausted troops to the town of Kut Al Amara, Iraq. His orders - to engage as many Turkish troops as possible in a siege situation. A relief force is hastily assembled, among them Charles Reid, Tom Mason and Michael Downe, for each of whom the advance is personal. Charles returns to the country where he lost the love of his life.

A beautiful and talented actress, Mary Robinson was one of the most famous women of her time. But Mary was destined always to be betrayed by the men she loved: by her father, who abandoned his family; by her husband, who bankrupted the family with his gambling and humiliated his young wife with numerous affairs; and by the Prince of Wales, later King George IV, who fell in love with Mary when he saw her playing Perdita in A Winter's Tale.

The market town of Everham is full of rumours and counter-rumours. Dr Leigh McDowall, medical registrar, is taking a refresher course in obstetrics. He is immediately attracted to Dr Shelagh Hammond, obstetric surgeon, but she is deeply involved with another doctor, Paul Sykes and is caring for her terminally ill mother, who has a secret of her own. Meanwhile Reverend Derek Bolt is troubled by the unwanted attentions of a female parishioner and he confides in headmaster Jeremy North.

Battered, bruised and washed up on the banks of a remote loch, the Lullaby Girl doesn't know who or where she is. She doesn't speak. She only sings a haunting Danish lullaby over and over again. When her shocking story hits the headlines, the Lullaby Girl is hot news. Everyone wants to know who she is. Strangers donate money for her care, and the media are breaking down the door to get to her.

Edinburgh, 1937. Attractive, dark-eyed Jinny Hendrie is happy enough in her job in the accounts office of a large bakery - until handsome Viennese cake expert Viktor Linden walks into her life. Although her father and her kindhearted boss, Ross MacBain, warn against it, Jinny is determined to marry Viktor, but when war is declared, all her plans are in ruins. Austria has joined forces with Hitler; Viktor has become an enemy and must return home to fight.

Liverpool, 1938. It’s Christmas in the Courts, and single mother Rosheen Clarke and her mischievous twin daughters, April and May, have no idea of the cataclysmic events which will soon overtake them. When war is declared, April and May are evacuated to the countryside, and Rosheen joins the WAAF, where she befriends fellow Liverpudlian Cassie Valentine. While Rosheen worries about what trouble the twins will cause next, Cassie is fighting her love for her childhood friend, Andy.