62 results for "Romance"

The Last Secret of the Deverills

Santa Montefiore
Bestselling author Santa Montefiore’s spellbinding, historical trilogy reaches its sweeping and heartwarming conclusion in The Last Secret of the Deverills. A new generation of love and war at Castle Deverill... Ireland, 1939. Peace flourishes throughout the country, but much has changed for the Deverill family. In Dublin, Martha Wallace searches for her birth mother. Given up for adoption as a baby and raised in America, Martha returns to Ireland to connect with her Irish roots. Instead, she falls in love with the impossibly charming JP Deverill, and together they uncover the truth about her family. At Castle Deverill, the humble daughter of the castle’s former cook is now Countess di Marcantonio and mistress of the Castle. Bridie is determined to make the splendid surroundings her home, but to do so she must turn a blind eye to the failings of her husband and son. Kitty has settled into her life with Robert and their two children, but when Jack O’Leary returns to Ballinakelly with a family of his own, she realizes she never forgot her first love, even though his heart belongs elsewhere. As the Second World War hovers on the horizon, the Deverills uncover a secret that will forever change their lives. The Last Secret of the Deverills is the dramatic conclusion to a stunning saga about a family caught in the sweep of history, and the ties that keep them together.
Simon & Schuster UK 2019-01-01 480 pages

Winter games

Rachel Johnson
Winter Games is a dazzling tale of secrets and betrayal, and the perfect novel for fans of The Bolter by Frances Osborne, and all those fascinated by the Mitford sisters. Munich, 1936. She doesn't know it, but eighteen-year old Daphne Linden has a seat in the front row of history. Along with her best friend, Betsy Barton-Hill, and a whole bevy of other young English upper-class girls, Daphne is in Bavaria to improve her German, to go to the Opera, to be 'finished'. It may be the Third Reich, but another war is unthinkable, and the girls are having the time of their lives. Aren't they? London, 2006. Seventy years later and Daphne's granddaughter, Francie Fitzsimon has all the boxes ticked: large flat, successful husband, cushy job writing up holistic spas . . . The hardest decision she has to make is where to go for brunch - until, that is, the discovery of a photograph of Daphne sends her on a quest to discover what really happened to her grandmother in Germany, all those years ago. A dazzling tale of secrets and betrayal, Winter Games is powerful novel of innocent lives caught up in the march of history. 'Johnson has a brilliant eye for the telling specifics . . . She is a natural comic writer and has a breezy, Mitfordian tone that makes you laugh at the same time as wincing in recognition . . . To write an entertaining romp set against the backdrop of Nazi Germany is a tricky feat to pull off. Yet Johnson has done it - and done it in style' Observer 'A rip-roaring read' Evening Standard 'There's never a dreary moment in this blast of a book . . . Johnson's descriptions are irresistibly exuberant . . . As addictively, fizzily invigorating as the Alpine air itself' Daily Mail 'Johnson delivers a genuine sense of time and place . . . there isn't a dull sentence in this sure-footed novel' Jenny Colgan, Telegraph 'An excellent romp. Full of 'tally-ho' Mitfordian charm . . . a witty, fast read' Red 'Excellent on period detail, the blundering innocent abroad and young heartbreak' Sunday Times 'The Jane Austen of W11' Scotsman Rachel Johnson is a journalist who has written two previous novels and two volumes of diaries. The Mummy Diaries , Notting Hell, Shire Hell and A Diary of The Lady are all available now from Penguin.
Penguin Books 2013 325 pages