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Living with her partner, Tony, his parents and their precocious teenage son, Alberta Granger considers she belongs to the perfect modern extended family. With her catering business booming and her daughter embarking on a glittering career in London, Bertie reckons she can cope with the mild irritants of her difficult stepson's visits and her father's ongoing disapproval of Tony. But some truly shocking news is about to rock Bertie's world to its foundations. As a torrent of tabloid headlines engulfs the family in a very public scandal, Bertie is forced to face the fact that some of her nearest and dearest, those closest family members she thought she knew so well, have been keeping secrets, leading mysterious double lives she knew nothing about. As revelation follows revelation, old wounds re-open and former grudges re-surface. Is Bertie's family unit tight enough to survive? Is her relationship with Tony solid enough to withstand the battering? And, when temptation arises in the form of a handsome stranger, is Bertie herself strong enough to resist?
What happens after the 'happy ever after'? When Robin asked Tilly to marry him, it was the happiest moment of her life. Ten years on, the sparkle has faded – household bills, household chores, two small children and a boisterous dog have seen to that - but Tilly is convinced their love can survive even the attentions of interfering in-laws and a glamorous ex-girlfriend. When dramatic news ignites the simmering undercurrents into a full-blown crisis, Tilly is forced to face the fact that her marriage is under threat. Can she and Robin find a way to recapture the love, lust and sense of fun that filled their early years together? Can Tilly find the strength to overcome the obstacles in the p...
In her Black Book, Annie May has recorded the name and offence of everyone who has ever done her wrong. The greatest transgressor of them all was Ben Seymour: the man who jilted her at the altar seventeen years ago. Now he's moving into a house round the corner . . . Entries from Annie May's Black Book: October 15th, 1974: Miss Baker for telling me how to blow my nose and not believing when I still couldn't do it. February 6th, 1977: David Llewellyn for saying my landscape painting looked like a pig's trough and then making honking noises every time he saw me. April 12th, 1987: Peter Elton for 'borrowing' my cigarettes and never buying any of his own. 9th February, 1988: BEN SEYMOUR FOR EVER...
Is there ever a right time to break up your oldest friend's marriage? Fifteen years ago, Merrily disappeared from the lives of her two best friends, Alison and Leah. Now she's back, with a husband who is sapping the life from her. Christopher is a bully who's convinced he's God's gift to everyone, especially his wife. He is also unfaithful, a fact which Leah wished she had never discovered. Should Merrily's friends stand by and watch their old friend sink ever further into drab submissiveness? Alison, happily married to Felix, thinks they should do something. Leah, divorced with two young children, is less convinced. Nevertheless, she joins Alison in a plan to liberate Merrily. As the campai...
Two months before Sarah's twin sons leave home for their gap year travel, her husband Andrew, a keen amateur thespian, announces that he's leaving her for his leading lady. Happily married for the past twenty years, Sarah has no idea how to fill her empty house, her empty days, nor play the role of discarded wife. As Sarah is to discover, the way forward is strewn with hazards and humiliations. If she is not to be bludgeoned to pieces, she must acquire skills for survival ... fast. Happily for Sarah, help (and hindrance!) is at hand in the form of well-meaning neighbours, a misbehaved mongrel, an eventful trip to Majorca, an unassuming plumber, and an unwelcome role as Mrs De Winter in the f...
Cornelius Hedge finds it difficult enough to talk to people he does know let alone people he doesn't. So he's plunged into gloom when he is dragooned into driving the female friend of a colleague's wife through France. How on earth is he expected to make small talk from Boulogne to Montelimar? First impressions are not auspicious: the moment he introduces himself, the woman inexplicably bursts into tears. But by the time they've reached their destination, Cornelius has grown increasingly fond of the unassuming Katrina. She is interesting, entertaining, amusing; he'd actually like to see more of her. At their age however, the past has a habit of intruding on the present. Ex-husbands, ex-wives...
Kevin has a bad attitude. He's the one who laughs when you trip and fall. In fact, he may have been the one who tripped you in the first place. He has a real knack for rubbing people the wrong way—and he's even figured out a secret way to do it with poems. But what happens when the tables are turned and he is the one getting picked on? Rhyme Schemer is a touching and hilarious middle-grade novel in verse about one seventh grader's journey from bully-er to bully-ee, as he learns about friendship, family, and the influence that words can have on people's lives. Includes bonus material! - Book Club Discussion Guide - Reading and Writing Connections
“Moving . . . Readers will nod their heads in sympathy with this guy who breaks the rules for all of the right reasons.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books A Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year Indiana Too Good to Miss State Reading List 2018 Timothy is on probation. It’s a strange word—something that happens to other kids, to delinquents, not to kids like him. And yet, he is under house arrest for the next year. He must check in weekly with a probation officer and a therapist, and keep a journal for an entire year. And mostly, he has to stay out of trouble. But when he must take drastic measures to help his struggling family, staying out of troub...
Widower Henry Drummond is marking time, drifting towards retirement, until he accidentally saves a life - and realises his own is worth living. His daughter Maddie is at a wedding with the love of her life - but he is the groom and she is not the bride. Henry and Maddie realise they need to make some changes, preferably with a soulmate by their side. But as Henry's mother tells him, 'Love is a complicated business and it is not for the easily discouraged.' Strange encounters, humiliations and adventures ensue, but romance remains elusive. By the time family crises complicate things further, the quest has taken on a life of its own - with surprising consequences...
Wallflowers and rakes do seldom mix well. Miss Chloe Larkin is completely assured of that. Especially when said rake is a member of the Waverly family--the people responsible for a feud that has been ongoing since practically the dawn of time.But he comes offering a deal...The centuries-old feud between the Larkins and the Waverlys has taken its toll. Brook Waverly wants this fight solved. Now. His ageing father cannot take much more of the stress and he's determined the problem shall be resolved before he comes to inherit.So he needs her help...Chloe is distrustful of Mr.Waverly--and rightly so. Not only is he her lifelong enemy but he has a reputation that would make the most experienced o...