In 1939, when Elizabeth, the daughter of a wealthy cotton mill owner, meets the dashing honourable James, she is overwhelmed by a handsome young man who is the opposite of her retiring, shy nature. Elizabeth has been schooled in etiquette at a Swiss finishing school but suffered slights from other girls from the ‘best’ families in Europe, titled and arrogant. Her father has no love of the aristocracy, wasters and scoundrels, he calls them, but for his daughter to be a future countess of Cumberland, that is something to contemplate. They marry but Elizabeth soon tires of the London scene. On the estate, Castle Hemgarth in the county of Cumberland, Elizabeth feels safe. World War 2 intercedes and takes James away, leaving Elizabeth to nurse her dying father-in-law and the estate. What Elizabeth and James want so badly is an heir but when James, an officer rising rank by rank, is away, what chance is there of that? Elizabeth finds courage and finds her feet as Countess of Cumberland and James has a wandering eye and a life away from Hemgarth.
Ben, 15, was difficult, withdrawn and liable to sulk and with the years had become ever more unhappy. His sister Jessica, 18, had become mother to him after their mother died of cancer, and Dad was most of his time in London running his import export business. Tom, 25, their brother has been a forever student and wants a last fling, skiing the winter in Canada, but as a fresh tragedy strikes all plans go awry. It seems someone wants them all dead, but who? Ben’s psychological problem comes to the fore and Jessica, old beyond her years deals with that and the threats to both their lives as they hide out in the less populated areas of Scotland. At last Ben feels able to confide in his sister. The COVID-19 pandemic interferes with life just as Ben has found himself and new friends but Jessica manages him and manages to keep them safe to find new lives.
Sierra Leone prior to and post-Independence in the early 1960s, seemed a place of tranquillity to Tim May, just twenty-one years old. He and his companions worked and played hard but Tim was labelled a failure in Freetown, in work and in health and as his manager Mr Enk said, ‘I’m sending you to manage Port Loko branch, you will bloody well sink or swim.’ It was the time-honoured treatment of a failure in the old Empire. Management was a daunting prospect, especially without a knowledge of Bank accounting, but Tim faces the future with fatalistic hope. Immature and wracked by personal problems the prospect is bleak, particularly dealing with the wily, cunning mostly Lebanese customers who grubbed a living thousands of miles from their nation’s internecine wars. It is not only the customers Tim has to combat, but the climate, diseases and general ill health and his mental state, a strange fish in a foreign sea. It seemed the bugs and creatures, the customers, his fellow expatriates and most of all his real persona all combined to defeat him. Tim though is a strong fish swimming amongst predators and escapes to fight other.
Jeremy had tried to explain to his parents when he was seven, but their reaction had been so destructive that he hid his true feelings and simply withdrew from the family. He feared and disliked his older brother Richard too. By eleven, something or someone had to break and it would not be Jem. A visit to his GP released him and the hidden emotions of those closest to him. That was when he learned about love, love of his family, what remained of it and love of a friend, expressing his real identity at last. Above all she learned to love herself and her new persona, even though she seemed to have a multitude of oppressors.
Chris is sixteen. For at least nine years of his short life, he has suffered from a mouldering discontent without actually identifying why he is so unhappy. The youngest by far of three children, he would be the last to leave home. His father's death and his exam results decide him to find employment rather than further education. Working with the fun girls of the Returns Section, triggers his salvation from a life of despair.
Edward is a strange child, quiet withdrawn, prone to tantrums and seems to find living in his family difficult. His father is a sports fanatic and he has passed his love of sport to Edward's older brother Nick. Edward runs for sanctuary to his neighbours, the Jennings, whose daughter, Jenny, of the same age, is his best friend. Tragedy befalls the family and Edward is adopted by the Jennings and at last has the courage to be who he really is.
James was quite a boy. He had a reputation with the girls and for his daring. His annual skiing trip was a chance for him to show off his athleticism and his devil may care attitude. Too much adrenalin is a dangerous thing and leads many a young man into trouble. When you are skiing off piste, in uncharted territory and in a snowstorm, adrenalin might help you get through it or it might get you into deep trouble. So it was that he found more trouble than he ever imagined and a changed life. A trans novel.
Meghan waits for her new little brother to come home with Mum from hospital but he doesn't come. Instead Mum and Dad say she can have a puppy. That's how Eddie comes into the family and he is everything Meghan could have wished. They are inseparable companions, dog and mistress. Eddie is not only a faithful companion, he's clever too. He and Meghan are so close, Meghan begins to believe he actually speaks to her. When they go on holiday with her bestie, Poppy, Eddie goes too. It's a good thing he's there, to come to the rescue.
This is the sequel to 'From the Ashes'. We find Saskia and Jenny still at Cambridge University. Her casual friend and the only boy she has ever kissed, Larry Murberry Has disappeared to the USA to study. Saskia and Jenny journey to see Saskia's father in Texas and Saskia at last makes peace with him. Larry reappears in her life and declares his love, but can Saskia return his love? Larry's family disapprove too, so the affair seems doomed from the start. Will love triumph?
A love story. Oliver is a troubled boy until one day in the forest in what he intends is his last hours, he meets his saviour Charlie. That is the beginning of an unshakeable friendship of two children and a partnership in which they save each other. It is no surprise that as these two ten years old children grow, their souls become inseparable. Different schools cannot prise them apart nor diminish the love they feel for each other, both bound in opposite directions but somehow bound together on a journey to their nirvana. On their voyage of discovery they become whole persons training for their divergent careers yet remain one entity.
Sometimes in life, people need a trigger to turn them from one path to another. Sometimes, humans can only stand so much pain. Terry endured his life, studied diligently, read books and worked hard at school. In many ways he was a perfect son and yet, his parents worried.A new school that had a different ethos, they hoped, would work the change in their son they wanted to see but in the event, that became the trigger to send Terry on a new path completely, the reverse of his parent's intentions.
Michael feels hunted, he knows that what he does is not normal. In his muddled mind, oppressed by his stepfather and bullied at school, and depressed, he has become something of a hermit. Bot only that, he does horrible things to himself, punishing himself for being this creature that no one understands. Not even he understands. Then Catherine his classmate of five years sits by him on the bus and his pain is displayed. School breaks for the summer and the future looks bleak but Catherine sees his pain and understands it probably more than Michael because he is so muddled and depressed. One thing leads to another. His family is decimated. His cruel stepfather makes it essential for Michael to escape and he does, into a new World where he can at last be the person he knows he really is, finding acceptance but suffering the worst loss of all on his journey to being Alicia.
One of the most incomprehensible aspects of human behaviour is changing sex. Who in their right mind would want to go through all that? What man would want to have their penis removed or woman have no breasts? Most who have had such operations have suffered severe trauma from the event, but for transsexuals it is a matter of release from imprisonment in a body that seems totally alien. Some men might venture out dressed as a female as a bit of a dare, a jolly jape, secure in the knowledge that they are men. Some act as women without actually wanting to be female or are transvestites, getting a thrill from cross dressing. Transsexuals usually know from a young age, in my case about three years old, that they do not want to be their natal sex and this disappointment gradually turns into severe depression. Everything about the sexes is different, relationships; the day to day basics of people relating to each other; the way men and women naturally seek out companionship of people of the same sex; clothes, interests and attitudes. I attempt to explain the syndrome with the latest scientific research while giving an account of my broken life. It is not an account of self pity, but a tale of triumph over adversity. People are hurt along the way, but that is no different to thousands of failed marriages with much less excuse. I make no apology. I have led my life to the best of my ability.
This is a fictional account of the abuse of vulnerable children in the United Kingdom, based on actual criminality. I hesitated to write this, and it has taken three years of heartfelt consideration. I feel for these poor girls, often from broken families but sometimes, girls from good homes who through one unguarded moment, found themselves caught up, controlled by evil men.
Trudi has survived nearly three years as a medical student in Paris. Simon, Comte de Beauvonne, her benefactor, is feeling insecure after his heart attack. His first wife of what was supposed to be a marriage of convenience, has died and there are questions to be answered. Trudi has demanded that her marriage remains secret out of respect for the deceased Catherine. While Simon recovers, Trudi has seized the reins of the Beauvonne empire and has set about running it efficiently.
Deliverance. Craig hates his name. He also hates his brother and he's not keen on his father. When his mother betrays him, his world has collapsed. Except for Jenny, he has no friends in the World. After Rob his jock brother outs him, there is nothing to lose. Pantonsville has to be history. Will Uncle Jem provide deliverance from oppression?
The beloved New York Times bestselling World of the Narrows series in one ready-to-read e-book bundle! Welcome to a world made dangerous by the sea and by those who wish to profit from it. Where a young girl must find her place and her family while trying to survive in a world built for men. "I could taste the salt in the air and feel the waves beneath the Marigold. In a brutal world Fable shines as tenacious yet vulnerable, unafraid to do what she must to survive. This story caught me by the throat and refused to let go!" - Shelby Mahurin, New York Times bestselling author of Serpent & Dove Includes Fable, Namesake, Last Legacy, Saint and the novella Drift.
Sam Caplin is nearly down but not quite out, wrestling with a Private Investigator business that is going nowhere and an inferiority complex that isolates Sam from her family and prevents her making new friends. Then one day into her crummy office steps Caroline, twenty-five, svelte and beautiful with partner trouble. Her partner Daniel just has too much money and there has to be a reason. Sam had been a good police officer, at home and streetwise in London, but when the action moves to Venice, she finds herself all at sea and suddenly, her target has become her guardian angel. That's where the loyalty comes in.
Peter is a loner and a no hoper. His father is in prison, his mother in a mental hospital and he lives in a children's home. He knows his future is without hope and he acts tough and fights rough. He is coming to the realisation that he is on the path to nowhere and then three girls step into his path, three nice girls who treat him to coffee and then a little friendly ridicule. Kayleigh decides to take the boy home and Pete's life changes forever.
Danny is a misfit, he knows that and so does his mum and sister Rachel. They, fearing for him, watch and wait. His father can't stand the sight of a boy that is so unlike him. It is not only at home where Danny is in trouble. School is a trial, he has few friends and many enemies, so life is difficult. Add to that his 'bunking' off and his thieving from shops in the Mall and you would say, this child will turn out like his father, a criminal. What Danny is not, is a thug. He has not inherited his father's liking for booze and brawling. His deprived and violent home is not the cradle for a child without an identity. Dannie is adrift, blowing with the gales that surround him. The only life saver, is sister Rachel, more mother than their mother and protector, confidant and eventual saviour.
Chris Ashley is used to a few punches and kicks, that is the usual treatment for boys who present differently to their peers but this time the thugs go too far and Chris ends in the hospital with a skull fracture. Then he goes to France, en route to his father and finds lightning does strike twice, for feeling ill already, he is mugged in Lyon. Every cloud, they say, has a silver lining and he is found unconscious by Mathilde who unwillingly at first, takes care of him. As a consequence, his life changes completely and what had been a bleak future, becomes full of joy and hope.
Harry Josfold is the product of a loving, caring and Christian family. His parents believe in being hands on parents. They are fully involved, checking he has done his homework, examining his school report and take a pride in his acting skills. Harry was not the sport loving boy his father wanted, but Mr Josfold was nevertheless, proud of a son who took prizes at school and the lead part in school plays. Harry's Hamlet received high praise in the local press. At Drama School his professor regards Harry as outstanding, the best student in ten years, bound for a successful career. The trouble is Harry prefers to be called Holly. Luckily he finds friends and one very special girl.
I never thought my day out in the Mall, furtively looking at clothes I couldn't afford and which I could not take into The County Council Home for Unwanted and Bewildered Children, would end by taking me to Edinburgh pursued by the Police and the Children's Department. Well that's what happened. A criminal on the run, disguised and yet, that led me to meeting my Mom. What Mom wants me for is another matter but anything is better than being homeless, isn't it? Of course none of that reckons on the difference love can make nor that magical thing, serendipity, interceding.
The fire was devastating, leaving the sole survivor, Jamie in trauma. After the hospital, he was taken in by his Aunt Elvira, a strict, cold woman, and raised by his Aunt's companion Samantha and his two girl cousins in a remote mansion in Mid-Wales. Lili has a cruel streak, Caitlyn is sweet and caring. From the first day in this house, his life changes, leaving him searching for his identity and a riddle to solve, what or who caused his family's death.
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