Friday, January 05, 2024

Best Seller!

 

So happy to see The Winter Widow a best seller in Amazon Australia Kindle!


 


New Release!

 

 

The Winter Widow is out now!

When all is lost, the hand of friendship is everything…

New Release 2 Jan 2024!

#historicalfiction #bookaddicts #readers #bookcommunity #familysaga #booklovers

https://mybook.to/TheWinterWidow




Friday, November 03, 2023

The Winter Widow - Coming Soon!

 

My next book to be released is The Winter Widow. 

When all is lost, the hand of friendship is everything…

York, Yorkshire, England, 1852

When Caroline Lawson becomes a young widow, her grief is deepened by the loss of her farm. A rash decision to travel to York to find work doesn’t turn out as she expected. Alone and vulnerable, she is unprepared for the harshness of the narrow dirty streets. With money running low and work difficult to come by, Caroline fears she will soon have no choice but to knock on the dreaded workhouse door.

However, she is not without hope, and with her new friends, feisty Trixie, and her two little sisters and the unique Mussy, Caroline learns she is stronger than she realised and that even in the worst of times, friendship is all you need.

Only Trixie and Mussy each have their own secrets, ones which will test their newly formed bonds with Caroline. 

When tragedy strikes again, and secrets are revealed, Caroline knows she must protect her friends and get them out of the dangerous city to the countryside she loves, but will she find there the happiness she once had? Or has the past destroyed any dreams for a happy future?  

Amazon pre-order available!

Out 2 Jan 2024!

https://mybook.to/TheWinterWidow



Tuesday, June 06, 2023

New release!

 Publication Day! 🥳

Thank you to all who pre-ordered my newest release, The Waterfront Lass. 😁
Meg might be poor, but she is proud and spirited and will strive to keep her family together! Set in Victorian Yorkshire.

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

New title and cover!

 

The War Nurse’s Diary (previously titled Where Dragonflies Hover) had a new title and cover!

When a stranger’s life in more intriguing than your own…

Sometimes a glimpse into the past can help make sense of the future…

Everyone thinks Lexi is crazy when she falls in love with Hollingsworth House – a crumbling old Georgian mansion in Yorkshire – and nobody more so than her husband, Dylan. But there’s something very special about the place, and Lexi can sense it.
Whilst exploring the grounds she stumbles across an old diary and, within its pages, she meets Allie – an Australian nurse working in France during the First World War.
Lexi finally realises her dream of buying Hollingsworth but her obsession with the house leaves her marriage in tatters. In the lonely nights that follow, Allie’s diary becomes Lexi’s companion, comforting her in moments of darkness and pain. And as Lexi reads, the nurse’s scandalous connection to the house is revealed...

#dualromance #WW1 #contemporaryromance #romance #timeslip #romancebooks #RomanceReaders #bookish #booktwitter #dualtimeline

Amazon: https://mybook.to/WarNursesDiary



Coming June 6th 2023!

 

The Waterfront Lass – out June 2023!

Meg might be poor, but she is proud and spirited! 


#historicalfiction #familysaga #WestYorkshire #booklovers
#readers #readingcommunity #Authorsoftwitter #newfiction #reading #RomanceReaders #books

#Preorder Amazon: https://mybook.to/thewaterfrontlass


Sunday, September 11, 2022

The Soldier's Daughter Released!

 


In The Soldier’s Daughter, Evie lives close to the made-up village of Lylston, which I located north of the real market town of Bingley and set between the higher villages of Micklethwaite and East Morton, leading up to the Ilkley Moor area. 

Like many towns in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Bingley prospered during the Industrial Revolution. The Bingley section of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was completed in 1774, linking the town with Skipton, and Bradford via the Bradford Canal. The canal passes through the town centre and ascends the side of the valley via the Bingley Five Rise and Bingley Three Rise Locks. Several woollen and worsted mills were built and people migrated from the surrounding countryside to work in them. Alexander’s mill is located in the valley between the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the River Aire.

Map

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This map is what I used to set Lylston Village, Bellingham Hall and Alexander’s mill in comparison to where Bingley is situated. Evie’s home (and Mr Lund’s farm) is just north of Lylston village.

A riding track Evie would have used over the moors.

A picture containing grass, sky, outdoor, field

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A view from the moors overlooking the valley. Something Evie would have seen when she left her home.

A glimpse of Bingley in the valley.

 

In Victorian times, Bingley was a hive of industry and a main route through the Aire Valley. Below are two photos I used as inspiration for when Evie is in the town, especially when she secretly meets Hal down the lane beside the pub and Alexander sees her but she denies it when he confronts her.

 A horse and buggy on a street

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The Soldier's Daughter

Yorkshire 1860

With the heat of their beloved India far behind them, Evie Davenport and her widowed British Army officer father, are starting a new life in England. But Evie is struggling. With her dearest mother gone, Yorkshire with its cold, damp countryside and strict societal rules makes Evie feel suffocated and alone.
Her friendship with Sophie Bellingham, the gently reared daughter of a wealthy rail baron, is Evie’s only comfort. Until the arrival of local cotton mill owner, Alexander Lucas.
Newly returned from America, it is expected Alexander will marry and finally make England his home. And Sophie with her family connections and polite manners is the obvious choice.
But when Alexander meets Evie, a simmering passion ignites between them. Evie, with her rebellious spirit is like no other woman Alex has ever met, but to reject Sophie for Evie would cause a scandal and devastate everyone Evie loves.
Evie knows she must do her duty. But in doing so faces the unbearable future of being without the man she loves.

Available now on Amazon: http://getbook.at/thesoldiersdaughter

Monday, July 25, 2022

99c Amazon USA sale!

 

The Orphan in the Peacock Shawl is on sale for 99c on Amazon USA.

“The writing is vivid and gripping!”

Annabelle can’t hide forever from the wealthy Hartley family, but can she give up the baby she loves? #historicalfiction #historicalromance #Victorianromance #bestseller

Amazon: http://getbook.at/OrphanPeacockShawl

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

The Marsh Saga Book Series

 Marsh Saga Series is now complete.

Book 4, Alice, has been returned by my editor and it's had another read through and is all ready for her release on May 27th.

Four very different women.
Millie (Book 1) 99p
Christmas at the Chateau (novella)
Prue (Book 2)
Cece (Book 3)
Alice (book 4 preorder - out May 27th 99p)



Over 2000 Reviews!

 Over 2000 reviews in 3 months of release!

🥰 Thank you to those who take the time to review any book and especially my books! LOL
The Orphan in the Peacock Shawl
“The writing is vivid and gripping!”
Annabelle can’t hide forever from the wealthy Hartley family, but can she give up the baby she loves?



A Finalist!

 

My certificate arrived from the RNA for being a finalist in the Romantic Saga Award with A Distant Horizon. I didn't win but was so proud to be a finalist.



Thursday, January 27, 2022

Book trailer for The Orphan in the Peacock Shawl


The Orphan in the Peacock Shawl

New Release!

Annabelle can’t hide forever from the wealthy Hartley family, but can she give up the baby she loves? #historicalfiction #historicalsaga #Victorian #Yorkshire

Amazon: http://getbook.at/OrphanPeacockShawl


Diaries and Journals

 

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I collect Victorian diaries and journals, written mainly by women who have arrived in Australia after leaving England, but also by women born in colonial Australia. These diaries are brilliant when I’m writing a story set in colonial Australia and they give me an insight to how they lived and what was happening in the world around them at that time. From their personal entries, we can learn what was important to them, their daily routine, their views and opinions. They can also lift some of those myths we in the modern world tend to think as true.

Below are some pages from a selected few of my diaries, which may show why I adore them so much.

This page is from The Letters of Rachel Henning. A genteel lady who left England and ventured to Colonial Australia to join her brother who was farming out there. It’s a fascinating account of her life and full of details about those times.

I also have a few diaries, or collections of letters written during the First World War, which is another favourite era for me to write.

Below is an example from the book, Unknown Warriors, The Letters of Kate Luard, RRC and BAR Nursing Sister in France 1914-1918.

Kate Luard is one of those unsung heroines of the war. A dedicated nursing sister who went to the front line to give aid to the wounded. Her letters are fascinating, harrowing, tragic but filled with such devotion and commitment.

Below is a page from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. A lovely diary of a naturalist’s world in 1906 written by English lady, Edith Holden.

Get your copy of The Orphan in the Peacock shawl below:

🇬🇧 https://amzn.to/3rRa15H

🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/3IFfymy

Tuesday, November 09, 2021

Lest We Forget

 I have two loves of genres that I write – Victorian and WWI. My regular readers will know that I have set many books in the Victorian era, but my WWI era novels are also close to my heart simply because of my fascination with the Great War.

Every Remembrance Day, I pause to give silent thanks to those who endured those war years, both on the battlefields and those at home. Their sacrifices allow us to have the freedom we do today.
Many years of research has given me an understanding of the hardships which that WWI generation went through. The first major war to touch so many lives in modern history.
While I will never fully appreciate the horrors those brave men and women suffered, I hope I have honoured them in some way in my stories. I wanted to use that era in my stories to represent not only the hardships and challenges but to show that people grew in character and strength because of what they had to face.
The world changed after the Great War. It was a time our ancestors lived, a time that should never be forgotten as the years dim memories.
We should all, if we can, visit the battlefields where so many young men gave up their lives, their futures, for us. It is moving, humbling and so very special to walk in their footsteps, to pay tribute to their lost youth.
November 11th 1918 the war ended, but we must never stop remembering and respecting all those sacrifices.
Lest We Forget.

Perhaps, by Vera Brittain
(Dedicated to her fiancé Roland Aubrey Leighton, who was killed at the age of 20 by a sniper in 1915, four months after she had accepted his marriage proposal)

Perhaps some day the sun will shine again,
And I shall see that still the skies are blue,
And feel once more I do not live in vain,
Although bereft of You.

Perhaps the golden meadows at my feet,
Will make the sunny hours of spring seem gay,
And I shall find the white May-blossoms sweet,
Though You have passed away.

Perhaps the summer woods will shimmer bright,
And crimson roses once again be fair,
And autumn harvest fields a rich delight,
Although You are not there.

Perhaps some day I shall not shrink in pain,
To see the passing of the dying year,
And listen to Christmas songs again,
Although You cannot hear.

But though kind Time may many joys renew,
There is one greatest joy I shall not know again,
Because my heart for loss of You
Was broken, long ago.




Thursday, November 04, 2021

Next book 2022!

 

Orphan in the Peacock Shawl Preorder! Out Jan 2022! Available in ebook, paperback, audio and libraries large print.

Annabelle can’t hide forever from the wealthy Hartley family, but can she give up the baby she loves? #historicalfiction #historicalsaga #YorkUK #Yorkshire #saga #Victorian #familydrama

http://getbook.at/OrphanPeacockShawl




Friday, October 08, 2021

New Release!

 A big no, HUGE, thank you to everyone who has bought Beyond the Distant Hills. One week since release and I've received some lovely messages from readers who have enjoyed it. 🥰

Beyond the Distant Hills – NEW RELEASE! (Book 2)
Ellen survived the Irish Famine. Can she survive the future in a strange land? Or has she made the greatest mistake of her life?
A Distant Horizon (Book 1)

Thursday, September 02, 2021

Silver Medal Award!

 So happy that The Market Stall Girl won a silver medal at the USA Readers' Favorite Book Reviews and Award Contest!!

The Market Stall Girl (Book 1)
The Woman from Beaumont Farm (Book 2)
Will Beth and Noah find the happiness they wish for or will overwhelming events break them apart?

Best Seller!

  So happy to see The Winter Widow a best seller in Amazon Australia Kindle!