Showing results by author "Kate Hewitt" in All Categories

Belinda "Lindy" Jamison has moved to the Cotswolds for a fresh start and to open a dancing school - her lifelong dream. Pushing 40 and still looking for Mr. Right, Lindy is determined to no longer wait for happiness but to reach for it with both hands. Soon Lindy has a motley crew of would-be dancers. But her most intriguing pupil is Roger Wentworth, a 40-something bachelor with a shy and awkward manner, but a heart of blazing gold.

1938, Salzburg. Johanna, Birgit, and Lotte Eder have always lived quiet lives, working in their father’s clockmaking shop and helping their mother in the house. But like many other Austrians, they find it impossible to ignore the changes in the world around them. At first Johanna finds it hard to believe the Nazis pose a real threat. But then her father hires Franz to help in his shop. He’s kind and soulful, with dark eyes that twinkle with intelligence. But he’s Jewish, and as Johanna falls for him, she realizes that loving him puts them all in danger.

I never expected to have to uproot my family to go live in my parents’ isolated cottage on Lost Lake. It’s twenty miles to the nearest town, an insignificant speck in endless pine forests. Nobody’s lived here for a decade. Now, I pick up a rusty pail from its nest of autumn leaves and turn to my daughter. Suddenly, I recall how I used to help my own mother pick wild strawberries up here as a little girl. Maybe, this isn’t a punishment. Maybe this place will be the making of our family.

When Rachel Mowbray left behind her family farm in North Yorkshire at eighteen, she never planned on returning. But when her ex-childhood sweetheart calls and insists she returns due to her father's declining health, she travels north. Every moment home reminds Rachel why she left—her sister Harriet is both hostile and cold, her father barely communicates with anyone, and the house feels stuck in time. Plus, her old neighbor and ex, sheep farmer Ben Mackey, still has the power to make her pulse race…a decidedly unwelcome realization!

As the youngest Holley sister, Miriam has always been a bit of a rebel. After spending several years backpacking through Europe and Australia, she’s now back home...unemployed and pregnant, with no boyfriend or husband in sight. At first, Miriam only wants to hide away from the shocked and prying eyes of her father’s parishioners, but her sisters won’t let her. Determined to help her find her way, they urge Miriam to accept a job working as an assistant to Simon, the new vicar...and to think about what will happen when the baby comes.

Rachel Holley has always dreamed of a wedding - the white dress, the fairy tale, and, of course, the happily-ever-after. But when her fiancé breaks it off the night before, claiming she doesn’t love him, Rachel’s fairy tale ends in ashes. Homeless, hopeless, and feeling like her life has been completely derailed, Rachel must start over in all sorts of ways - and hold her head up high in the fishbowl of her tiny village.

When Laurel West discovers her estranged sister Abby has checked herself into rehab and wants her to take care of her 14-year-old son, she doesn’t hesitate to step in. Abby was there for Laurel a long time ago, and she longs to be able to offer the same. However, as a single woman who still dreams of the fairy tale, Laurel isn’t prepared for teenaged Zac’s sullen moods or silent rage. When he’s expelled from school, she decides to take drastic measures and temporarily relocate them to her great aunt’s cottage on the windswept hills of the Orkney islands north of Scotland?

The Penryn family have always been eccentric—living in a dilapidated castle in the wilds of Cumbria with an orchid-mad father and a classicist mother who likes to re-enact Greek myths, who wouldn’t be? Now the family is restoring the castle, and Olivia Penryn is in charge of reviving the once-profitable garden. Nursing a broken heart and a guilty conscience, Olivia longs to lose herself in roses and lavender, but she’s filled with doubt. She’s never handled a project this big. When Olivia hires Will Turner to help with landscaping, her bruised heart begins to heal—and hope.

Alice James has been a drifter her whole life, working her way through several foster homes before ending up in Wychwood-on-Lea, feeling anchorless and invisible. When a chance encounter leads to Alice accepting a position as a caretaker and companion to Lady Stokeley, she starts to feel as if she might finally be able to put down some roots and live the way other people do. Then, Lady Stokeley’s nephew, city banker Henry Trent, storms into Willoughby Manor, seeming to find fault with everything, including Alice.

Persephone is the youngest Penryn, and she’s always felt like an afterthought. As her siblings ventured out one by one, she was left behind, learning to rely on herself. Now that they’ve all returned and are on a mission to save their home, she’s reluctantly falling in with their plans and keeping her distance, especially when an Oxford-educated intern arrives wanting to learn how to save one’s ancestral home.

Sam Penryn, the only son and heir, has returned to Casterglass with deep reluctance. After dedicating his life to far-flung adventures to forget his past, the last thing he wants is to come home and take the reins of his family’s crumbling estate. But he knows his duty, and his sisters are doing their best to turn their ancestral ruin into an interactive tourist attraction. Rose Lacey has spent her life as a nomad, adopting a carefree attitude to protect her fragile heart, which worked until she met—and then left—Sam. Their goodbye becomes hello when she shows up on his doorstep.

When Sophie Weiss boards the SS St Louis, she has no reason to stay in Germany. The Nazis have taken everything from her, and her only hope is escape. But when she meets fellow Jewish refugees Rosa, Hannah and Rachel on board, the friendship they form gives Sophie hope that there can be happiness in her future, after all.

Laura Neale is grieving. A year after her beloved husband’s death, she is still left with far too many questions and is struggling with feelings of guilt, anger, and grief. Hoping to rebuild her life and her children’s, she moves to Wychwood-on-Lea with her two troubled kids. The warm community of women who have lived in Willoughby Close welcome her with open arms, and their friendship helps Laura find a semblance of peace. But when she finds herself with an entirely unexpected attraction to her son’s teacher, James Hill, Laura is gobsmacked.

The year 1819, Isle of Mull, Scotland: When Allan MacDougall tells his sweetheart, Harriet Campbell, he loves her on the eve of his departure to the New World, it breaks her heart. Because there is no way for her to go with him. She promises to wait for him, even though it could be years before they are reunited. They vow to write, but when crucial letters go astray, they feel further apart than either could have imagined.

When a chance encounter takes Ellen Copley away from the beautiful island she has called home since she was orphaned as a child, she believes it is the new start she has been waiting for. She settles into an exciting, creative new life in Glasgow, feeling like she’s finally finding her independence. And even though she left a part of her heart back on the island, she’s flattered by the attentions of her handsome, charming benefactor, Henry McAvoy. But tragedy strikes their fledgling relationship, and soon after, war looms over Europe.

It only took a moment for everything to go wrong. In the blink of an eye, the birthday party became a nightmare when we heard the screams… How did this happen? And who is to blame? I’m so happy as I walk to pick up my son from the party. It’s his first since we moved here, and I know he’s found it hard settling in. Just as I’ve found it hard to make friends among the mothers at the school gates. But as I turn the corner, my heart stops. Instead of the picture-perfect birthday party I left earlier, there’s an ambulance.

Single mother Beth loves her seven-year-old son Dylan with all her heart. He’s her world. But life with Dylan isn’t easy — and his emotional issues push Beth to her very limit. When a misunderstanding leads Dylan to be taken into foster care, she is determined to do whatever she can to get him back. Mother of two, Ally has always dreamed of fostering — it feels like her chance to give back when she has been so lucky in life. But when Dylan joins their family, Ally finds herself struggling to balance his needs with those of her own children and husband.

With older sister Rachel home to help run the family farm and navigate their father's terminal illness, Harriet Mowbray feels untethered, yet surprisingly free. She wants to embrace her future but continually trips over the insecurities and hurts from her fraught family relationships. When a mysterious millionaire purchases a derelict manor home to renovate into a hotel set to open before Christmas, Harriet pushes herself out of her comfort zone. She approaches the owner to become a client for her fledging bakery business.

1944, London. When Lily meets enigmatic GI Matthew in war-torn London, she doesn’t expect to fall in love. While her sister starts a reckless affair with another GI, Lily tries to hide her growing feelings for Matthew. But Matthew has a devastating secret. One that could change their lives forever.

When Tessa arrives at the little house by the lake with her two children, it is an escape. The rental house may be a bit small – but it’s theirs for the summer. A place to hide.... However, their isolation is disrupted by the family from the big house next door. Three children and their glamorous mother Rebecca – who seems determined to invite Tessa into their lives.