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As usual 2 books
Review date will be 13 May 15 :-)
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From Pam who won't be able to vote but who is happy to read our choice.
The King's Sister by Anne O'Brien
One betrayal is all it takes to change history
1382. Daughter of John of Gaunt, sister to the future King Henry IV, Elizabeth of Lancaster has learned the shrewd tricks of the court from England’s most powerful men.
In a time of political turmoil, allegiance to family is everything. A Plantagenet princess should never defy her father’s wishes. Yet headstrong Elizabeth refuses to bow to the fate of a strategic marriage. Rejecting her duty, Elizabeth weds the charming and ruthlessly ambitious Sir John Holland: Duke of Exeter, half-brother to King Richard II and the one man she has always wanted.
But defiance can come at a price.
The Little shop of Hopes and Dreams by Fiona Harper
Nicole Harrison is planning the proposal of the century. Too bad its not her own…
Nicole, a born organiser and true romantic, has created her dream job when she sets up the Hopes & Dreams proposal agency – staging YouTube worthy proposals…until she’s hired to plan a proposal by gorgeous photographer Alex Black’s girlfriend.
Alex is the New Year’s kiss that Nicole hasn’t been able to forget – and now she’s planning his wedding to someone else! But if she lets herself fall for Alex’s charms, her reputation and business will be ruined before it’s even got off the ground! Suddenly the girl whose always prepared is at a loss…and falling head over heels.
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The Winter guest by Pam Jenoff
Love will tear them apart…
Helena and Ruth Nowak are like chalk and cheese: one staunchly outspoken and independent, the other gentle and caring. Caught up in the struggle of Nazi occupied Poland, the sisters have bound together and created an enviable bond that can’t be broken. Or so they thought…
When Helena discovers a Jewish Allied paratrooper, wounded but alive, she risks the safety of herself and her family to hide him. As her feelings for the solider grow deeper, she finds her loyalties torn.
Outraged at this impulsive choice that endangers them all, mild-mannered Ruth finds herself becoming increasingly jealous of Helena.
As tensions are sparked, a singular act of betrayal unleashes a chain of events that will endanger them all and reverberate for decades to come.
From hardship and heartbreak, this gut-wrenching tale puts to the test the ties of sisterhood in the shadow of WW2
Small Island by Andrea Levy
1948, England recovering from war but at 21 Nevern St London the conflict has only just begun.
Queenie Bligh’s neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers. But with her husband Bernard, not back from the war, what else can she do?
Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAf to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. Gilbert’s wife, Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in gland. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit and far from the city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was.
Small Island explores a point in England’s past when the country began to change .Andrea Levy handles the weighty themes of empire, prejudice, war and love with a superb lightness of touch and generosity of spirit.
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The Knot by Jane Borodale ( who wrote The Book of Fires)
1565. Across Europe, a new era of natural science is dawning. In a remote, damp corner of Somerset, an unlikely pioneer is working to change the course of English botany. Passionate, private, meticulous – Henry Lyte has begun to neglect his other responsibilities in the pursuit of knowledge. This has happened before, with disastrous results.
Married again after the tragic death of his first wife Anys, Henry tries to forget the past, absorbed by his scholarly translation of a Dutch ‘Herbal’ and by the intricate herb garden he is planting, with a Knot at its heart.
Yet beneath the surface he is uneasy, and as the garden begins to flourish, old family troubles start to worm their way up towards the light. Here, on the edge of the fertile wetlands that his new wife Frances fears so much, Henry is accustomed to the peril of flood.
But when the unexpected death of his father unleashes the malevolence of his stepmother Joan Young, he is not prepared for this new threat that could destroy everything he has come to love…
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Indian Summer by Marcia Willett
For renowned actor Mungo, his quiet home village in Devon provides the perfect retreat. Close by are his brother and his wife, and the rural location makes his home the ideal getaway for his old friends in London.
Among those is Kit, who comes to stay for the summer, bringing with her a letter from her first and only love, Jake, and a heart in turmoil. Years have passed since Kit and Jake last saw each other, and now he written to Kit asking to meet again.
As the summer unfolds, secrets are uncovered that will shatter the sleepy community, and even tear a family apart. But those involved soon realise that the only way to move forward might be to confront the past.
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Well Pammy won't be voting as she is away for a couple of days and so far I have been unable to get hold Of Mersey.
I will leave it until tomorrow the 3rd Perse, then I will have to make a decision as there are only two of us. I need to get it sorted before my holiday. :-)
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~~~~~~s to one and all especially Ann....apologies for delay Ann...
She Only Wore White - Lesley Schudt
At the turn of the twentieth century, five thousand people a day arrived at New York’s Ellis Island, their journeys to America signifying a new beginning. But the ocean crossing also has a deeper symbolic meaning: there comes a time for us all when we find ourselves afloat, between phases of our lives, where we say goodbye to our past and move on to new horizons.
For Valentina Meyer, harboring a deep secret of tremendous guilt and pain drives her to board a trans-Atlantic voyage as a stowaway, searching desperately for a new life on a distant shore. Accompanying her is a varied cast of eccentric and unique individuals, each in search of a new and better life. Finding solace—even love—in the companionship of their fellow guests, their arrival in America puts an abrupt end to their camaraderie as Valentina’s future is immediately put in jeopardy. A probing, affecting exploration of the hidden corners of the human heart, She Wore Only White is literature at its finest.
The Next Time You See Me - Holly Goddard Jones
Thirteen-year-old Emily Houchens doesn't have many friends. She spends her time alone in the woods near her house - her safe place, until she finds the body of a young woman.
Susanna Mitchell is searching for her sister, Ronnie, who vanished after leaving a late-night bar. The more she discovers about Ronnie's life, the more she realises that her sister began to disappear long before she went missing.
The Next Time You See Me explores the fault-lines of a small community - their hidden desires and their other, secret selves.
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