Showing results for "The Girls" in Victorian

Bordeaux, 1894. Minerva Hawkins is a corset maker with nimble hands, a defiant spirit—and a secret that could upend an entire noble lineage. When blackmailed by the cold and calculating Superintendent Raeburn, who claims she's heir to a Scottish earldom and her mother is captive in his asylum, Minerva is desperate. She turns to the only man daring enough to help: Étienne Sansecours, a former criminal with a past as dangerous as her future.

When Annie and her brother Cory are orphaned Hettie's mother takes them in. Hettie and Annie sell watercress on the streets of Victorian London to make a living. Annie's dissatisfaction grows and her reckless ambition takes her on a separate path. After she disappears in mysterious circumstances, Hettie sets out to find her. While searching for Annie, in the darkest and most dangerous part of London, she uncovers the corruption and depravity of Victorian society. Secrets are revealed that put both their lives put in danger. Can Hettie find her friend before it's too late?

Paris, 1750. In the midst of winter, as birds fall frozen from the sky, a new maid arrives at the home of a celebrated clockmaker and his clever, unworldly daughter. But rumours are stirring that Reinhart's uncanny mechanical creations - bejewelled birds, silver spiders - are more than mere automata. That they might defy the laws of nature, perhaps even at the expense of the living. But Madeleine is hiding a dark past, and a dangerous purpose - to discover the truth of the clockmaker's experiments and record his every move, in exchange for her own chance of freedom.

In a tumbledown Cornish cottage, with an alcoholic father, Colenso Carne works with the Serpentine stone from the local mine. When she catches the eye of the new factory manager, her father insists she rejects her beloved Kitto in order to marry Fenton. Forced to flee the village when Fenton turns nasty, she is taken under the wing of wise woman Mara and travels to local fairs, learning to make bonbons to pay her way. But she never gives up hope of being reunited with Kitto....

After a desperate act leaves Jillian Morehouse a fugitive, she flees to Whitechapel. The escapee finds work in a Mayfair corset workshop, but the walls are closing in. Jillian catches the eye of the handsome Michael Kelly, a reformed criminal with a dangerous history he's anxious to keep hidden. The pair are drawn together by a powerful attraction—but their love is tested when she's kidnapped and abandoned in the catacombs beneath London.

Devon, 1887. Life has not been kind to dairymaid Tresca Ladycott. She can’t rely on her flighty farmhand father, Emmanuel, so she relies on herself. Then comes a devastating blow. Tresca is sacked from the dairy and the pair lose their home. She and her father seek a new life in bustling...

Elizabeth Thornton has every reason to want to escape from home — a ramshackle farm in the middle of nowhere on the wilds of Dartmoor. Since her father's death, she's been trapped here, in the clutches of her lascivious uncle. When a position opens up at Rosebank Hall, she jumps at the chance. She will be a domestic drudge at the beck and call of the house's cantankerous master.

August 1883. The future for Ling Southcott, a quarryman’s daughter, seems to be already mapped. Marriage to her childhood sweetheart, Barney, a cluster of children, a life contained to the hamlet of Foggintor Quarry. For Ling, with her sharp, enquiring mind and love of books, it is an accepted...

A compelling saga of love, loss and self-discovery set on Wild Dartmoor. Dartmoor, 1875. Rose Maddiford, beautiful, vivacious and intelligent, could have her pick of men across Dartmoor. But she is in no hurry to marry unless it is for true love — and certainly not while she can help her...

Agnes Cavanaugh has watched her mother, Kitty struggle to put food on the table ever since they crossed the sea from Ireland. So when she sees an opportunity to help earn some money by selling cheese at the local market she begins to work with the local farm to maximise on sales. Much to her mother, Kitty’s, disappointment, Agnes is immediately drawn to the farmer’s son, Jonas. And Jonas can’t help but be enchanted by Agnes. But their love faces many challenges

Sheffield, 1867. It's the height of a long-running and violent campaign known as the Outrages, where murderous acts are carried out on behalf of a rogue union leader. Louisa Leigh, a former maid-of-all-work, is trapped into prostitution and desperate for money to escape. She befriends Ginny Hinchcliffe, a young widow who will do whatever it takes to break free from a life of servitude to her in-laws. The two women become entangled with Joe Crookes, henchman to the man responsible for the Outrages.

The close, loving family life Rose has known is shattered when the country goes to war. Rose resolves to do her bit so, aged 16, she leaves home to train as a nurse in London. There she finds freedom, excitement and a different way of life. A brief encounter with a soldier opens her eyes to romance, but is he the man she thinks he is? Can first love survive long separation or will Rose discover that her heart belongs to another? When the war brings searing loss and heartbreak, can Rose find the strength to look to the future?

Violet Daniels isn't perfect. She's made mistakes in her life, but the deep love she has for her five-year-old twins is beyond dispute. When their feckless and often violent father turns up out of the blue, demanding to see them, she's terrified he might snatch them from her. She flees with them to a place of safety where she meets the handsome and charming Gabriel Stone. He shows her a better way of life, but is he everything he appears to be? Violet decides to stop running and finds the courage to return to London to confront the children's father.

London’s East End. Life for Hope Daniels in the public house run by her parents is not as it seems. Pa drinks and gambles, brother John longs for a place of his own, sister Violet dreams of a life on stage and little Alfie is being bullied at school. Silas Quirk, the charismatic owner of a local gentlemen’s club and disreputable gambling den her father frequents, has his own plans for Hope. When disaster strikes, the family lose everything and the future they planned is snatched away from them. Secrets are revealed that make Hope question all she’s ever believed in.

Orphaned at birth, Eliza lives with her beloved Grandparents in a waterlogged Somerset cottage surrounded by willow beds where she ekes out a living making laundry baskets and eel traps. Although poor she is content, until childhood friend Clem regales her with tales of his adventures along the river and she begins to wonder what life is like beyond the Droves. When fate brings handsome, wealthy Theo to her workshop she is instantly attracted and a rosy future beyond the Droves beckons.

Eliza was left as a small baby at the workhouse in Whitechapel, wrapped in her mother’s shawl, which is all she has of the mother she never knew. At 11 years old, she has survived sickness, near starvation and harsh beatings. Master Simpkins and his cruel daughter rule the workhouse with a rod of iron, but when Romany boy Joe arrives at the workhouse, his spirit and courage give Eliza hope. When she is sold into service, Eliza is relieved to be out of the workhouse and hopes her fortunes are changing for the better, but cruelty and unkindness are everywhere....

When a nearly naked woman crashes into his arms, Paul, the new Earl of Latterly, knows he's left his monk-like world behind. Raised apart from females by his misogynist father, Paul hardly knows how to speak with the delightful girl who's dashed out of the dance hall. But in a single night's tryst, they discover a passion he's long denied himself. Yet to his dismay, he learns Emma is the adopted sister of the very man he seeks: the true heir to the earldom, Paul's ne'er-do-well cousin.

Set on the wild moors of West Yorkshire, The Girl from the Tanner's Yard by Diane Allen is a moving family drama about a girl who rises to prosperity from humble beginnings. After facing the horrors of the Crimean War, Adam Brooksbank returns to Black Moss Farm filled with regret over the path...

When Frances Bumgarten encounters a handsome stranger in her kitchen in the middle of the night, her first impulse is to wallop the scoundrel on the head with a bread paddle. And when Frankie discovers he is "The Fox", a disarmingly arrogant purveyor of gossip among England's aristocracy, she's tempted to take a second swing. Never mind that Reynard Boulton, nephew of the Viscount Tannehill, is returning her inebriated uncle safely home. This chiseled intruder has sparked an infuriating physical sensation unlike anything the feisty Nevada silver heiress has experienced.  

'This heartfelt story is perfect for fans of Dilly Court and Katie Flynn' - Candis 'Gritty and moving story-telling' - Peterborough Telegraph Annie Murray's The Pearl Button Girl is book one in the Children of Birmingham series, starting in Victorian Birmingham and following the trials and...