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Joanna always knew her daughter Holly was special. The fact that she was profoundly deaf never altered her giving and gentle nature.
Ruth hurries upstairs to collect some artist's frames from her studio when her unfinished storyboards catch her eye. Instead of her own illustrations, Ruth is affronted by seven-year-old Ben's drawings effectively defacing her work. How can she reproach him though, when he is only just opening up from months of silence? After both of his parents are killed, Ben is placed into the care of bachelor Gavin Baker - his biological grandfather - whom he has never met. Gavin is a busy, successful London businessman who has no time for children, even his own daughter, Ben's mother. So when Ben comes to live with him and is then diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, Gavin is distraught. Upon relocating to Northumberland, Gavin meets children's author, widow Ruth Saint who quickly befriends the unlikely pair with her help and sense of fun. Together Ruth and Gavin begin to coax Ben - and each other - out of his shell. But will they all get another bite of the cherry?
After a serious accident, Sarah Waters was forced to change the direction of her life completely. Over a long recuperation battle she was finally healthy again but left floundering at what to do with herself. It was then she found the small village of Cockleshell Bay. With the support of her parents and new-found friends Alice and Frank who owned the café next door, Sarah would soon find that her seaside life of crafting jewellery from recycling 'au naturel' items washed up on the beach was just the change she needed. But the day she finds a suspicious package forces Sarah back into the law enforcement world she thought she'd left behind and threatens to change her tranquil existence forever... Would the seriously handsome local police officer Daniel Summers ruin her idyllic village home or would it bring the vital spark missing from her life? Together they unearth many local secrets in an effort to solve the mystery of the secret package.
Bobby Lennox, a romance writer, and her two best friends Suze and Penny, thought all their financial worries were a thing of the past when Bobby inherited Hollybush Station house, which could provide a home and a business venture for the girls. Meanwhile, Major Alexander Balfour returns home from Iraq a broken man, destroyed was his lifelong dream of serving his country in the colours of the Royal Highland Regiment, The Black Watch. After being invalided out of the army, in his attempt to heal himself physically and mentally from the horrors of his tour at Camp Dogwood, Alexander embarks on his father's dream; to restore and inhabit their ancestral home, Balfour Castle. But would the Balfour Flag ever fly again?
My story tells of a woman who for a reason that will become clear on reading, has to leave everything she has ever known behind her and start a fresh. At first this will seem devastating for her, however she soon finds out that what she had known before was not all there was to life.
It would be difficult to say who got the biggest shock. While inspecting his newly renovated property in the village of Juniper, Architect Ben from Edinburgh, would come across what looked to him like a rather scruffy looking intruder sleeping in his bathtub. Could things get any worse for village decorator Lizz? After being locked in her clients bathroom, than being picked up in the rain by him after her trusty little van ran out of petrol. Ben hadn't realised how tired and overworked he had become until a brush with reality made him up sticks and move to the country. Little did he realise this dainty decorator fiddle player would open up his world to the pleasure of folk music and so much more.
Miniver Hargreaves and her divorcee mother live a meagre, make-do-and-mend existence, but at least they have each other. Then tragically, at barely sixteen years of age, Min is left to fend for herself when her mother passes away. The teenager must use all of the resources her mother taught her, just to survive. Now a successful florist and seamstress, hard working Min finds herself rather lonely so when Robert Smith, a soldier on leave, begins to pay her some attention she is very flattered. After a whirlwind romance the young couple are quickly married, with Rob taking a naive Min completely under his wing. But what Min believes to be love begins to evaporate into control, and then spiral into violence. Can a distraught Min escape Rob and reach inside herself to find her survival skills once again? If not for her own sake this time, but for the safety of her child?
Comraich - meaning sanctuary in Gaelic How could Kate have known she would be in need of sanctuary when she set off for her romantic skiing holiday in Aberdeen, with her partner Dominic. At one point Kate thought she was going to die, lying there in the deep snow until her rescuer in the form of a German Shepherd saved her life. It was the worst winter in Scotland for Thirty years: Kate Johnson could not believe she was going to be stuck here in this ....farm? for the whole of Christmas, especially after what she had been through. However after getting to know the owner of the farm James Wallace and his little girl Isabella a little better, Kate thought that things might not be so bad.
Paradise Street is not your average street. Its collection of weird and wonderful residents is eccentric to say the least. Perhaps the most unusual is Lilly Wells: retro clothes shop owner and Doris Day look-a-like. Lilly lives her life in the image of her idol and is searching for her ideal leading man, a gentleman just like Cary Grant. However, Lilly's flowery petticoats soon begin to droop when her dates fail to deliver. Then the unthinkable happens: Paradise Garden, the Street's very own sanctuary of tranquility is threatened with demolition. In order to help save the garden, Lilly must forge an unlikely teammate in resident grease monkey Dino Fontinelli. But will the suave and persistent newcomer Roger Dempsey sweep Lilly off her feet? Or will it be good old Dino who turns out to be Lilly's true dreamboat?