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The Liverpool Series
Across the Mersey
Jean and Vi are twins but couldn't be more different. Jean's proud of her honest, hardworking husband and their children, but there's never a penny to spare. Vi's equally proud of her husband's new role as a local councillor and their elegant new house, and has raised her children to expect the best.
As war breaks out, agonising decisions must be faced. Should the oldest children enlist? Should the youngest be evacuated? All the traditional certainties are overturned. Then the twins' own younger sister, singer Francine, returns home unexpectedly and stirs up the past, even in the midst of present danger.
This is a tremendous saga of fighting spirit and family closeness, and the belief that even though today is full of destruction and pain, there is hope for a better tomorrow.
Daughters of Liverpool
Katie's full of trepidation as she arrives in Liverpool. It's her first posting and her work will be so secret that she can't even speak about it to the family she's billeted with. She makes it clear that she's here to do her bit for the war effort, not to flirt with the many servicemen based at the nearby barracks.
Which is just fine with Luke, son of the household and battle-scarred veteran of Dunkirk. He's had his heart broken already by a flighty nurse. His mother can't help worry about him - but she's got more than enough on her plate with her youngest children, the teenage twins, who don't see why a war should stop them having fun and achieving their ambition to go on the stage. Then the bombs begin to rain in Liverpool in earnest and everyone, from oldest to youngest, must realise what matters most in life.
The Heart of the Family
The Campions have always stuck together through danger and sorrow, but even they begin to wonder if it's time to take their youngest, the twins, to safety away from the bombing raids. The twins have other worries on their minds; having been inseparable, they now realise that they each have different ambitions - and Lou isn't sure she'll find what she wants close to home.
Meanwhile, cousin Bella is managing a crčche and discovers that life isn't all about pleasure. She's the last person her family would expect to help anyone; but when a figure from the past turns up on the doorstep, Bella's unexpected reserves of compassion are revealed.
From hardship and heartbreak, surviving the toughest of times, the Campions know they can make it through if they have one another.
Where The Heart Is
Lou Campion has joined the WAAFs, against the wishes of her parents and twin sister Sasha. Lou's always been a rebel, but now finds that if she wants to succeed she'll have to follow extremely strict rules. Can she do this or will it all end in deep disgrace?
Tragedy haunts the other members of the family, as Katie's plans for the future are dashed, Fran's young husband is close to death and Bella's impossible passion has to remain a close secret.
Yet even in the darkest hour there is hope. The Campions find that they have a hero in their midst and while their city is crumbling, their pride is intact.
When the Lights Go On Again
The tide is turning, but the battle is far from over...
Autumn 1944, the allies are invading Italy. On the home front, the Campion family are doing their bit -working tirelessly in the hope that the end of the war is now in sight.
Sasha, newly engaged to Bobby has been tormented by nameless terrors ever since she was rescued from a bomb shaft. But she needs help if she is to face down her fears and look to the future.
Lou, separated from her twin Sasha, is breaking the mould in her new role as a member of the Air Transport Auxiliary.
But she is shaken to her core when a face from her past shows up, the devilishly handsome pilot, Kieran Mallory.
Back in London Katie hopes that she is finally over Luke, the man who broke her heart, until a surprise letter from him arrives. But can they rebuild something stronger on the ashes of their love?
Even though today is full of suffering and pain, there is hope that tomorrow the lights will go on again.
The World War II Series
Goodnight Sweetheart
This is a captivating saga set on the eve of WW2 in Liverpool, where life is about to change forever for one girl. As war breaks out so too does Molly Dearden! Molly is used to living in the shadow of her older sister, June.
When their mother died when Molly was just seven years old, June helped their grief-stricken father look after her in their tiny home in the tight-knit Edge Hill district of Liverpool. But as her seventeenth birthday passes, Molly doesn't realise how much she is going to have to grow up. As the threat of a second world war looms, she must learn to protect herself, her family, and her heart.
When hostilities finally break out, Molly finds the courage to enlist in the Women's Voluntary Service. There, she can help the war effort and finally stand on her own two feet. It's a terrifying time, but also some of the best days of her life, especially when she meets, and falls for Eddie.
The pair live for the precious hours when Eddie is on leave from the Navy and excitedly plan their future together. But then tragedy strikes. Devastated, Molly can take no more. But then the terrible reality of war hits her home town and Molly must find the strength to protect those closest to her heart.
Some Sunny Day
Forbidden love and family secrets in World War Two Liverpool is the heartrending new saga from the author of "Goodnight Sweetheart". Rosie has grown up in the heart of Liverpool's Italian community, treated as one of their own.
With a father away at sea and a mother more interested in other men than her only daughter, the bighearted Grenellis are the closest thing Rosie has to a proper family. But when war breaks out, and Italy becomes the Allies' adversary, everything changes.
The community is torn in two: friends become enemies, neighbours become traitors and Rosie is left uncertain of just who she can trust. As war intensifies, and Liverpool is subjected to relentless bombings, things become more perilous. When a devastating attack leaves her mother dead, Rosie is sent to live with her aunt in Edge Hill.
Her father is feared missing at sea and her aunt lets slip a family secret which has unimaginable consequences...Fleeing her cruel aunt, Rosie becomes a Land Girl and falls in love - with someone utterly forbidden.
As bombs drop and families are ripped apart by conflict at home and abroad, can they find happiness or will war stand in their way?
The Grafton Girls
The new Liverpool-based World War Two saga from the author of Goodnight Sweetheart is a tale of four very different young women thrown together by war. A unique bond is formed as the hostilities take their toll on Britain.
When Diane Wilson leaves Cambridge for Liverpool, destined for Derby House and war work as a teleprint operator, she is intent on mending her broken heart. But will hundreds of miles ease the pain of her betrayal?
From the moment she first lays eyes on Myra Stone in the Wavertree terrace she is billeted to, Diane senses she's bad news. But does Myra's bitterness and caustic wit belie a secret heartache?
Ruthie starts work at the munitions factory, enduring terrible conditions in order to put food on the table for herself and her widowed mother. But Ruthie is befriended by lively and vivacious Jess Hunt who injects colour and fun into the drab surroundings.
All four women are brought together at The Grafton, the local dance hall favoured by American GIs as well as the local girls. In this heady, uncertain time, infatuation and passion blossom. But has each girl found true love - or true trouble?
As Time Goes By
The new Liverpool-based World War Two saga from the author of Goodnight Sweetheart and Some Sunny Day is the story of tomboy Sam, keen for adventure in the ATS, and Sally, a young mother desperate to hold her family together.
When Sam Grey joins the ATS, she wants to find adventure, not end up in office work. But when she's posted to Liverpool, that's what she's allocated. Sam wants to show that she's as brave as any man, and when she doesn't get the chance her lively nature leads her into confrontation with her authoritarian boss.
Sparks also fly when she encounters Johnny, whose heroic work in bomb disposal makes him very attractive to many women -- but Sam's determined not to fall for his charm. Sally wants nothing more than to protect her small children while her husband is a prisoner of war.
She works hard doing shifts in a factory and singing at the Grafton ballroom, confessing to no-one the shameful reason why she needs two jobs. But help is at hand, from a most unlikely source. Annie Groves is fast becoming one of Liverpool's favourite saga writers.
This stirring tale of women fighting together to do their bit for their country, keep their families together and finding love and fulfilment in the process will delight her fans and win her many more.
The Pride Family Series
Ellie Pride
A stunning saga debut from an author destined to be a star of the genre -- ELLIE PRIDE is an engrossing, heartrending story of love, passion, duty and family, set in the North-east in the early part of the twentieth century.
A stirring tale charting the life of Ellie Pride, a beautiful Preston girl who, when her mother dies, must forge her own way in the world. Warned by her mother on her deathbed to forsake love and passion for stability and social status, Ellie must spurn the advances of handsome Gideon Walker, despite her deep attraction to him.
With her father struggling to cope with two children, Ellie is exiled to live with her aunt and uncle in Hoylake. Her mother's dream is that this will give her the chance to escape her background forever. Ellie attempts to get on with her life - but Gideon is never far from her thoughts. Even once she is trapped in a loveless marriage, their paths are destined to cross again and again with far-reaching and devastating consequences.
Connie’s Courage
A stirring novel of passion, lost loves and one girl's determination to conquer the odds from the author of ELLIE PRIDE. When Connie Pride finds herself alone and pregnant in the rough courts of Liverpool, she despairs. Deserted by her lover, menaced by his bullying uncle, and too proud to ask her estranged family for help, there seems no hope.
Rescued from the gutter, she is offered the chance to train as a nurse at the Poor Hospital. Life becomes a whirl of hard work and long shifts, but also lively evenings at the music hall with her fellow nurses and the newly drafted soldiers. Finally Connie has a purpose in life especially when the wounded of World War 1 start to arrive in their droves on the hospital wards.
With a roof over her head and a steady wage, if she can stay out of trouble, the future looks brighter. Even love seems possible again. But then a face from the violent past turns up to disrupt Connie's new life and shatter her dreams.
All she has built up is threatened and she herself is in physical danger. It will take every ounce of the courage she possesses to overcome the odds and a little help from old friends and new.
Hettie of Hope Street
A breathtaking tale set in 1920s Liverpool and London of one girl's determination to trace her roots, find true love and succeed in a world where obstacles lurk around every corner.
Hettie is an orphan, taken in by Ellie Pride and her husband to their Preston home and treated as one of the family. But she has never felt she truly belonged. Hettie has a special gift, a beautiful singing voice, and on the cusp of womanhood, she makes a choice that will alter the course of her life. Amid the bright lights of Liverpool, she will follow her dreams.
But once there, the only way to survive is working in the kitchens of a restaurant. Until, by chance, she is heard singing by the owner.Whisked to London, Hettie is thrown into a theatrical and colourful world but one with a dark side, its young inhabitants haunted by the horror of the First World War, and stalked by the fear of the Depression to come.
Then tragedy strikes, and Hettie must decide between her heart and her head, her duty and her desire.
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Four lives. One war that will change them all.
