Showing results by narrator "Deryn Edwards" in Romance

In June 1940, the Channel Islands become the only part of Great Britain to be occupied by Hitler's forces. Hedy Bercu, a young Jewish girl from Vienna who fled to Jersey two years earlier to escape the Anschluss, finds herself once more entrapped by the Nazis, this time with no escape. Hedy's War follows her struggle to survive the Occupation and avoid deportation to the camps. Despite her racial status, Hedy finds work with the German authorities and embarks on acts of resistance.

A small Welsh town hosts a lively and varied community - and none more so than Nelly Luke, the cheerful Cockney widow who made a ramshackle cottage her cosy, if unconventional, home. Nelly's generosity and wisdom win her many friends: Fay, the young newly-wed; Amy, the glamorous shopkeeper whose private life is colourful indeed; and her dignified sister Prue, whose family cupboard contains more than a few skeletons. Against the mounting excitement of the Coronation summer, Nelly steers her friends and family through storms and sunshine alike.

From the Sunday Times best-selling author of The Pool House, this dark and twisty thriller is perfect for fans of BBC's The Replacement, The Girlfriend by Michelle Frances and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. You trust your friend, so you'd trust her daughter. Wouldn't you...? When an old university friend gets in touch with a request for work experience for her daughter, magazine editor Amy agrees. Twenty-year-old Josie walks into Amy's office, moves into the basement of her Notting Hill house and is soon helping out with her children after Amy's nanny is hit by a car.

Amid the sun-soaked hills of southern Italy lies the Romano family olive grove, where Lara lives with her daughter Rose and her granddaughter Bea. Lara has spent a lifetime trying to forget the traumatic events that led to her desperate escape from Dorset seventy years ago. But when she sees Bea—a passionate horticulturalist most at home in nature—being swept off her feet by Matteo, a handsome and charismatic restaurateur, Lara fears her granddaughter is in danger of making the same mistake as Lara did all those years ago.

Everyone that meets Kat Keating is mesmerised. Beautiful, smart and charming, she is everything a good girl should be. Her sister Eleanor, on the other hand, knows she can't compete with Kat. On the awkward side of tall, clever enough to be bullied, and full of the responsibilities only an older sibling can understand, Eleanor grows up knowing she’s not a good girl.

After 20 years of contentedly playing the role of home-maker and mother, Frances Copeland's life is shattered by the sudden death of her husband. With no career to fall back on and her son and daughter leaving home, the solitude of bereavement hits particularly hard. When new love beckons, in the form of a handsome young man 15 years her junior, Frances is torn. She longs to open her heart again but does not dare to trust her feelings. Turning to her closest friends for help, she is met by a wall of judgemental attitudes and envy.

Wales, 1943. Sara Lewis should be heartbroken when her husband doesn't return from war. But he was never the kind husband she hoped for. And now she's stuck with her cruel mother-in-law on the family farm. Sara must do what is best for her young son. So she leaves the farm for the safety of her sister's home. Despite herself, she begins to notice Carlo, an Italian prisoner of war. Longing looks soon turn into a connection neither of them can sever. But fraternization is forbidden. As their love grows, so does the danger all around them.

A marriage of dynasty: that is what is expected of Mary Sidney. A marriage to Sir Henry Herbert, earl of Pembroke, to be precise. But Mary’s sharp mind longs to work on her writing and translation projects and perhaps learn more of the alchemical arts at the elbow of the dazzling Walter Raleigh. Rose Commin, a young country girl with a surprising talent for drawing, is desperate to shrug off the slurs of witchcraft which have tarnished life at home. The opportunity to work at Wilton House, the Herbert’s Wiltshire home, is her chance.

November, 1915. For young housemaid Anwen Rhys, life is hard in the Welsh mining village of Dorcalon. She cares for her ill mother and younger sister Sara, all while shielding them from her father’s violent temper. Anwen comforts herself with her love for her childhood sweetheart, Idris Hughes, away fighting in the Great War. Yet when Idris returns, he is a changed man, quickly breaking off their engagement. But when there is an explosion at the pit, Anwen and Idris put their feelings aside to unite their community. Can Anwen find hope again?

King Henry V's beautiful widow, Catherine, is determined to marry Owen Tudor, a Welsh gentleman-at-arms. But her life decisions are not her own, overshadowed as she is by more powerful men who are closer to the Throne. The Duke of Bedford would marry her off to a foreign prince, Henry Beaufort would give his allegiance in exchange for a Cardinal's hat, and the handsome Duke of Gloucester, brother of the dead king, openly desires her. Added to that, her son, the King, is a weak child. She must use all her wits and courage if she is to forge a new life for herself.

Spring 1919. WW1 might be over, but the inhabitants of Dorcalon in the Welsh Valleys still feel the pain of the war that took so many of their men. Polly Smith is trying to survive her own battle at home. After her abusive husband, Gus, was finally jailed, Polly has been raising her two-year-old son alone. But being a single mother isn't easy, and Polly finds it harder still as Gus's criminal activities leave her with a bad reputation. Lonely and struggling for money, Polly retreats as she becomes the subject of cruel gossip.

Margaret Beaufort was rich, beautiful and just 13 years of age when she discovered that she carried the future king of England within her body. Forced to give him up as a web of intrigue and danger was spun around her son, she entrusted the child to the care of his uncle, Jasper Tudor, who would have laid down his life for the Lancastrian cause. Caught up in the Wars of the Roses, Margaret was banished from court in disgrace, and although she later won the love and loyalty of three powerful men, her heart remained true to Edmund Tudor, the father of her son.

It's August 1917, and WW1 continues to take a toll. The villagers of Dorcalon try to keep hope alive, but every day brings fresh tragedy as more are killed on foreign battlefields. Elizabeth Meredith, daughter of mine manager Herbert, enjoys a privileged position in the village, but she longs to break free of society's expectations. Falling in love with miner Gwilym Owen brings more joy to her life than she's ever known...until she's forced to choose between her love and her disapproving family.

July, 1916. In the Rhymney Valley, young mother Violet Jones is caring for four-year-old Clarice and baby Benjy on her own, while husband Charlie fights on the Front Line. When tragedy strikes, Violet’s life becomes even harder. Violet takes in a relative to help make ends meet. As the Great War takes its toll on the nation, Violet faces her own battle. Can she protect her children? And will she ever find joy out of the depths of despair?

The Fourth Shore: the sliver of fertile land along the Tripoli coast, the 'lost' territory Mussolini promised to reclaim for Italy. Which is how, in 1929, 17-year-old Liliana Cattaneo arrives there from Rome on a ship filled with eager colonists to join her brother and his new wife. Liliana is sure she was on the brink of a great adventure, but what awaits her is not the Mediterranean idyll of cocktail parties, smart dances, dashing officers and romantic intrigues she had imagined.

Janet and Hywel Griffiths dream of seeing their son Frank happily married, but Mair, the daughter of the local police constable, does not seem to be the wisest choice. And anyway, she is far more interested in the secretive Carl Rees, who refuses to even be seen with her in public. Elsewhere in Pendragon Island, Jennie Francis must rethink her life as she is forced to say goodbye to her business and her marriage. All she ever wanted was to run a successful shop, but now she will have to start again. How can she manage if she is completely alone?

Poachers and dealmakers, the Griffiths family have always managed to scrape by on the edge of the law. As rationing finally draws to an end, the tight-knit community finds itself coming to terms with a new world in which social boundaries are being eroded and opportunities are growing for all. Heartache remains a constant though, with Caroline Griffiths trapped in a sham marriage to Barry Martin, and Rhiannon Lewis still mourning their broken engagement.

When Maisie Vasey leaves her husband and brings her daughter to live on Pendragon Island, she causes unrest within more than one family. Underneath the happy surface of this Welsh seaside town, relationships can seem fragile and easily destroyed. When Maisie comes to work for Edward Jenkins at Montague Court, he soon makes his intentions clear, but she has very different ideas about where their friendship is heading. Lewis and his fiery wife Dora continue to row with each other, even though they both know that love still binds them together.

Edward Jenkins dreams of opening a sports shop in the Welsh town of Pendragon Island. Then his ambitions become a possibility through his and his sister Margaret's inheritance, but Margaret has plans of her own. Can Edward stand up to her for the very first time? Rhiannon and Charlie Bevan want to start a family, but her father Lewis is living with them, refusing to accept the happiness of their marriage. If only they could find a way to reunite him with her mother Dora, they could finally have the home they've dreamed of.

The Weston family have always pinned their hopes for creating a dynasty on their glamorous granddaughters. But Joan and Megan - confident and eligible though they are - regularly set tongues wagging with their outrageous behaviour. Their grandmother Gladys decides she must organise a party to find them suitable husbands - and that's when everything really goes wrong. Meanwhile, fortunes are shifting in Pendragon Island.