That Girl from Nowhere by Dorothy Koomson
Smitty Smittson (Clemency to be formal!) designs and modifies pre-loved jewellery. Smitty was adopted at birth by the straight and very correct Heather and her dearest, late Don. Although Smitty has always been curious about her birth parents she's never searched. However when her 12 year relationship with Seth crumbles, she decides to move to Brighton, the area from which three decades earlier, as a little black baby she was given away to a white family. There any idea of searching becomes redundant as the world turns and she's the one that's found. Full review...
The Tutor by Andrea Chapin
Katherine de L'Isle comes to live with her uncle Sir Edward's family at Lufanwal Hall when she's widowed after only a year of marriage. A fine home and the bosom of the family should be a place of safety but not in this case. This is 1590 in Queen Elizabeth's protestant England and Katherine's family are Roman Catholics; something they thought was a secret till their priest is found murdered on their land. Life must go on though. The children of the household are raised and educated almost on the periphery of Katherine's vision until she meets their tutor, a certain Midlands' glove maker's son called William Shakespeare. Full review...
The Pearl a That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi
Kabul 2007: Rahima and her sisters are followed home from school one day by a boy on his bike. He taunts them innocently enough as little boys do, but with no sibling brother, the girls are unchaperoned in this land that is ruled by the laws of men. And as daughters in a household without sons, in a country that is governed by fear, the consequences will weigh heavily for them all. Full review...
The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg
2005 Alabama: Sookie Earle awakes one morning a 59 year old happily married female Methodist with American roots that go way back in history and a wonderfully steadfast dentist husband. However before she goes to bed that night all that (apart from the married and female bits) will change.
1940s Wisconsin: a Polish immigrant family lose their men to wartime conscription and so have to make a go of their family gas station alone. Fritzi and her sisters rise to the challenge and then take on another more dangerous adventure, taking to the skies for the war effort. Full review...
Yes! I Can Manage, Thank You! by Virginia Ironside
As mid-60s edges towards late, Marie Sharp has even more of life's challenges to grapple with and even more to give. Her beloved Archie has passed away and she feels it's time to take a new lodger. Maybe someone male and a little younger? There's also Melanie; a new gale force of nature next door neighbour now that the wind-chime-challenged Brad and Sharmie have moved on. Unfortunately Marie doesn't like her but this only gets worse when Marie realises that she's the only person who doesn't like her. However, not all is negative. Grandson Gene is now 7 years old and may be the link to a little part time work for Marie to keep her artistic hand in. If she could work out why one side of her tummy is a different size and shape to the other, life would be practically perfect. Or maybe it's best not to think about that at all? Full review...
Lay Me Down by Nicci Cloke
It's New Year's Eve and the nightclub is pulsating with sound. The revellers heave and swell in oceanic waves and Jack is preparing to call it a night, when he is presented with Elsa. She is small; delicate and pretty and alluringly confident - a heady combination for a man like Jack - and though he wants, with every fibre of his being, to walk away, to go home and forget her, he doesn't. Full review...
The Lovers of Amherst by William Nicholson
2013: Alice Dickinson has decided to write a screenplay about the 19th century affair between Mabel Todd and Austin Dickinson (no relation). 1881: Austin, brother of reclusive poet Emily Dickinson, has an unhappy marriage but isn't looking for happiness outside it till he meets Mabel. The very liberated Mabel may be married too, but her husband believes in freedom within wedlock. There follows one of the most scandalous relationships to face small town New England; a relationship that Alice wants to research on-site. While there, Alice discovers that inappropriate romance still exists but this is the 21st century so she feels ready for the consequences. Full review...
The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain
Her father dead, her mother too, her only brother struggling with the after effects of a tour in Iraq. Riley’s life is not the easiest right now, but with the mammoth task of clearing out her late father’s estate, she’s back in her hometown for the summer while school’s out and she has time off her adolescent counselling job. Riley is expecting to have a long but simple task ahead of her, sorting through things to keep, things to donate, things to sell. But as she rifles through a lifetime’s collection, she finds far more than she bargained for including troubling news about her sister Lisa who committed suicide as a teenager. Except, it seems, she didn't. With the help of family friends, reams of paperwork and an email history he never expected her to find, Riley discovers her father had been keeping some big secrets. Lisa didn't drown, after all. She took off under an assumed name with a new identity, never to be heard of again. It’s a traumatic discovery for Riley, especially without anyone to share it with, but the more she digs into the past, the more she realises how little she knows about her family history. Full review...
The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan
Alice Eveleigh is sent to Fiercombe Manor in 1933 as the result of a scandal. Back in the 1890s the Manor had been home to Elizabeth and Charles Stanton and their little girl Isabel but it doesn't feel like a house that's seen much happiness. The stones are drenched in tragedy and secrets that have remained locked away since then. What sort of secrets? Will Alice be too nosey for her own good or will the secrets remain just that, with the added threat of history repeating itself? Full review...
The Crooked House by Christobel Kent
Many years ago, a tragedy shook an English village. A whole family wiped out with no warning, a whole family, that is, except for one of the daughters who was, unbeknown to the assailant, upstairs at the time. Esme was that girl, but she is no more. She has a new name, a new identity, a new life, far away from that terrible place. As Alison she flies under the radar, not attracting any attention, with a menial job to fill her days. And she has every intention of staying that way, no intention of ever stepping foot in Saltleigh again. Full review...
Vigilante by Shelley Harris
Jenny Pepper is a forty-something wife and mother who is stuck wondering where her life has gone. Privately, Jenny is jealous of her husband, he has a wonderful creative career that people can’t wait to hear more about, while Jenny’s work as a mother and her job at a charity bookshop seems to put a stopper on conversation. Jenny envies her daughter, with her youthful figure and a whole life stretched out in front of her. When tidying up one night, Jenny discovers her husband’s secret and just like that her life changes. Full review...
Hider, Seeker, Secret Keeper by Elizabeth Kiem
I was caught up by this novel from the first pages and read it with absorption in a single sitting. The young heroine, Lana Dukovskaya, is a third generation ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet but the experiences of her mother and grandmother are shrouded and lost. Her grandmother's name, we discover, has been erased from the records and her mother is a troubled secretive figure. Lana challenges the conventional notion of a ballerina: she has close cropped hair, loves high speed motor bikes and most of all she wants to experiment with the repertoire. Full review...
It's In The Cards by Pamela Fudge
Ellen Carson was just slightly put out that her family arranged a surprise birthday party for her fortieth, but more annoyed that they wouldn't accept that she was quite happy being single and unattached. She had a successful career as a card designer, a home she loved and no intentions of getting into any long-term relationship. What did make her wonder was why her brothers and sisters were so keen to get her involved with any remotely eligible male when their own relationships were so dysfunctional. She had no interest in the two men from her past who have come back into her life - or the one who has been hovering round the edges more in hope than expectation. Full review...
Accidents of Marriage by RS Meyers
What if your marriage is crumbling? What if you are living on borrowed time? What if a terrible accident occurs and your role in the family has to change from absent father to man about the house? Would you rise to the challenge or add this to a long list of things you don’t do well? Full review...
The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan
I do like Jenny Colgan’s books. At least, that’s my impression although I’m surprised to discover that I had only previously read two of them. Her titles seem to feature food-related topics, and this particular one is third in a series about a young woman called Rosie Hopkins. She lives in a small village in Derbyshire with her boyfriend Stephen, and runs a sweet shop. Full review...
Almost Perfect by Delia Franklin
Almost Perfect is the debut novel for Delia Franklin, and comes with a delightfully quirky front cover, which is part of what attracted me to it. It starts well, too. Gloria, who works as housekeeper for a late middle-aged farmer called Will, is happily surveying her vegetable patch. The tractor approaches and as Will climbs down, his mobile phone alerts him to the fact that his only granddaughter Lucy has had a fall, and is in a serious state in hospital. Full review...
The Baron Next Door by Erin Knightley
Charity is hoping to enjoy a relaxing break in Bath, attending the music festival with her beloved grandmother, Lady Effington. Charity doesn't just love music, she lives music; it is an intrinsic part of her very being and she is never happier than when playing her latest compositions on her pianoforte. She cannot understand why anyone would hate music, so when her new neighbour Baron Cadgwith turns up on her doorstep, demanding that she keep the infernal racket to a minimum, she declares war on the insufferably rude Baron next door. The result is a light-hearted and sweet Regency romance that sees the most unlikely pair begin to bond, despite their differences. Full review...
The Year I Met You by Cecelia Ahern
Jasmine is the main protagonist of this book, and also the narrator. She’s single and has just lost her job, much to her dismay. She’s the kind of person who likes to be busy and to have a purpose in life, but the conditions of her former employment mean that she’s on a year’s ‘gardening leave’: she receives a full salary but is not allowed to start another job for a full year. Full review...
The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty
For years, Scribbly Gum has been a tourist trap, with crowds flocking from the mainland to visit the untouched site of the Munro Baby mystery, when a newborn was found abandoned on the island, her parents vanished. The baby is now a grandmother herself, but the mystery lingers on, and, well, it’s quite a good business for the residents. Silver linings and all that. But now Connie, one of two sisters who found the baby, has passed away, and left her house to a stranger, an outsider, someone who doesn't really belong on the island. Will Sophie’s arrival disturb the peace? Are long hidden secrets about to surface? And what will it mean for the extended family if they do? Full review...
The Repercussions by Catherine Hall
Once home from her role as a photo-journalist in Afghanistan, Jo decides to move into the Brighton flat that her great aunt Elizabeth has bequeathed her. While searching through the belongings that go with the home, she finds Elizabeth's WWI diaries from the time that she nursed wounded servicemen from the Indian Corps at the Brighton Pavilion. These entries cause her to reflect on her time recording the more current war and enables her to open up to her ex-lover Susie in a series of letters, telling her how it was, the lives of those she met out there, what it did to them and, indeed, to her. Full review...
The King's Sister by Anne O'Brien
It's England in 1380 and 17 year old Elizabeth of Lancaster has always dreamt of her betrothal and the sort of love of which balladeers sing. So when she meets the person her father has lined up, her face drops to say the least. The Earl of Pembroke is eight years old so she's not pleased. However one day love will find her and cruelly cause her to choose between the love of her life and family with fatal consequences. Full review...
One Step Closer To You by Alice Peterson
Single mum Polly has a lot of baggage, but it all basically boils down to two things, boys and booze. She’s been to hell and back, but for right now, she seems to be doing ok, holding down a job in a café, looking after son Louis and staying off the sauce. She’s even in a position to help those she meets, like her fellow AA-ers and single dad Ben at school who is adjusting to his new role. Full review...
Indian Summer by Marcia Willett
Mungo is a retired actor and director. His brother Archie is a landowner, struggling to make ends meet. Kit is a good friend who comes to stay, wanting a safe place while she decides whether or not to get in touch with a former boyfriend. Neighbours include Emma, an army wife with two small children who is tempted to an affair with a friend of her husband’s, and the elderly brothers Philip and Billy who have a secret that’s been hidden for forty years... Full review...
The Twilight Hour by Nicci Gerrard
Eleanor has been persuaded by her children to seriously consider sheltered accommodation. At the age of 94 and blind, she isn't considered safe rattling around a big old house. She doesn't surrender without conditions though: before she considers moving out, a stranger should be employed to sort her photos and papers before burning them. The family agree and Peter is appointed. Gradually he realises why Eleanor doesn’t want her children to see the documents as the story of hidden life, love and loss is revealed. Full review...
Cover Your Eyes by Adele Geras
For London fashion journalist Megan forbidden love ends suddenly and painfully, just when she thinks it will blossom into something lasting and legitimate. Elsewhere, in the countryside, Eva Conway lives with her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters in Salix House – the house that Eva used to call her own when she was a famous fashion designer. Now she feels alone, even in the heart of her family. Not only this but she also faces the loss of the home that means so much to her. As Megan and Eva's paths cross they discover that each of them has a dark guilty secret eating away at them, but then Salix House has secrets too. Full review...