The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh is a moving story of hope and forgiveness, and an international bestseller.The Victorians used flowers to express emotions: honeysuckle for devotion, azaleas for passion, and red roses for love. For Victoria Jones, flowers and their meanings are her only connection to the world – although for her, they are most useful in expressing feelings such as grief, mistrust and solitude.After a childhood in the ...

Everyone makes mistakes...Letty was going to go places. She was going to be someone. Then she got pregnant, and her plans changed.Now she's a single parent with two children she's convinced she can't care for, a dead-end job she's struggling to keep, a home in a half forgotten part of town, and no prospect of anything changing any time soon.Determined to give her children a better future, she takes a decision that may change all their lives.But perhaps ...

The Victorian language of flowers was used to express emotions: honeysuckle for devotion, azaleas for passion, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it has been more useful in communicating feelings like grief, mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings.Now eighteen, Victoria has nowhere to go, and sleeps in a public park, where ...

A letter, two lovers, a terrible lie. In war, truth is only the first casualty.‘Inspires the kind of devotion among its readers not seen since David Nicholls’ One Day’ The TimesWhile Riley Purefoy and Peter Locke fight for their country, their survival and their sanity in the trenches of Flanders, Nadine Waveney, Julia Locke and Rose Locke do what they can at home.Beautiful, obsessive Julia and gentle, eccentric Peter are married: ...

‘I absolutely loved it! So different, clever, funny and charming’ Sunday Times bestseller Katie Fforde‘Funny, wise, moving and full of lovely moments…The characters are endearing and unforgettable’ Hazel Prior, author of the Richard & Judy Book Club Pick Away with the Penguins‘Janice is a wonderful woman whose authenticity pulls you along…the breadth and originality of supporting characters makes this debut an imme...

Savour The Sweetness of Forgetting: a tale of baking, love, hope and faith across generations.The North Star Bakery has been in Hope's family for generations, the secret recipes passed down from mother to daughter. But at thirty-six and recently divorced, with rebellious daughter Annie and elderly grandmother Rose to care for, Hope is less than enthusiastic about carrying on the family legacy. When the bakery runs into financial trouble and Rose takes a turn for the worse, Hope's d...

A RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB PICKPennsylvania, 1968.'Hide her.'Two words that would change all of their lives - for ever.On a stormy night in small-town America, a couple, desperate and soaked to the skin, knock on a stranger's door. When Martha, a retired schoolteacher, answers their knock, her world changes for ever.Her visitors are Lynnie and Homan, who have fled The School for the ...

Based on a real-life scandal that gripped England in 1864. From the bestselling author of Room, Emma Donoghue's The Sealed Letter is a delicious tale of secrets, betrayal, and forbidden love.Helen Codrington is unhappily married. Emily 'Fido' Faithfull hasn't seen her once-dear friend for years. Suddenly, after bumping into Helen on the streets of Victorian London, Fido finds herself reluctantly helping Helen to have an affair with a young army of...

To her husband, Annie O'Neill is the perfect wife and mother. To her rival, she is an obsession.Dr. Olivia Simon is on duty in the emergency room of North Carolina's Outer Banks Hospital when a gunshot victim is brought in. Midway through the desperate effort to save the young woman's life, Olivia realizes who she is—Annie O'Neill.The woman Olivia's husband, Paul, is in love with. When Annie dies on the operating table, she leaves behind three other victims...

Welcome to Walls of Water, North Carolina, a place where secrets run thicker than the town's famous fog. Once upon a time, Willa Jackson's family owned the beautiful house on the top of the ridge. Now it symbolises her family's ruin and a legacy Willa longs to escape from. Paxton Osgood also yearns to break free, especially from her parents' expectations, and the heartbreak of unrequited love. Desperate for a distraction, she decides to restore the empty mansion to its former glory. But th...

A powerful, moving book of secrets, longing and loss, from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Gathering.If it hadn't been for the child then none of this might have happened.She saw me kissing her father.She saw her father kissing me.The fact that a child got mixed up in it all made us feel that it mattered, that there was no going back.**Shortlisted for The Orange Prize for Fiction**

A Richard and Judy Book Club selection.‘This story of friendship, love, grief and growing up will yank on the heartstrings. And then some’ LookAlice Bliss is fifteen. She’s smart, funny, and clever. Not afraid to stand up for the things she believes in. She also idolizes her father, and when he leaves home to fight a war she doesn’t believe in, Alice is distraught.She and her mother negotiate his absence as best they can – waiting impatient...