Orion The September Girls Ли Маурин

Three Liverpool families - the Flowers, the Baileys and the McDowds - all very different, yet inextricably linked. Beginning in post-war Liverpool, Lime Street Blues is a powerfully compelling saga which follows their lives, loves and ambitions • In the 1960s Liverpool, and the glamorous world of music, is the place to be. So, when Sean, Lachlan and Max form The Merseysiders and Jeannie and Rita become part of The Flower Girls, they put their hearts and souls into their performances and achieve success beyond their wildest dreams • The greatest star of all is Sean McDowd, adored by women everywhere, yet unable to get his first love out of his mind. But Jeannie Flowers has married Lachlan and no-one is prepared for the deceits and betrayals that lie ahead

Liverpool 1915. Martha Rossi lives in a tenement with her husband and their five children. Despite working all the hours she can, the family don't have much to get by on. When Martha's fourteen-year-old son, Joe, proudly enlists to fight for his country just to earn his mother an extra shilling, Martha is horrified. She realises the government is turning a blind eye to the scores of young boys who are joining the army. Despite her pleas and protests, Joe is dispatched to France • Unbeknownst to them all, Joe's act of selfless heroism will have huge implications for Martha and all the family. As the dreaded telegrams begin to arrive from the front in France, mothers' hearts are broken across the country. Spurred on by grief of her own, Martha Rossi begins a quest that will take her right to the doors of No

1944. It is spring, late morning, when Flora's life changes for ever. She is standing on a platform in the Swiss mountains, watching as a cattle train draws near. From within the wooden trucks she can hear human voices - groaning, pleading and desperate • Horrified, she begins to run alongside the train, frantically trying to help. But as the train picks up speed, a filthy bundle of rags is thrust through the slats and into her arms - 'Take him. His name is Simon.' • Flora stands on the platform, a baby boy cradled against her. And although everything looks exactly as it had done moments before, nothing will ever be the same again

As Britain stands alone against a monstrous enemy, the inhabitants of Pearl Street, in Liverpool, face hardship and heartbreak with courage and humour • The war touches each of them in a different way: for Annie Poulson, a widow, it means never-ending worry when her twin boys are called up and sent to France; Sheila Reilly's husband, Cal, faces the terror of U-Boat attacks; Eileen Costello is liberated from a bitter, loveless marriage when her husband is sent to Egypt and she goes to work in a munitions factory - and falls in love. And Jessica Fleming, down on her luck, is forced to return to the street she'd hoped never to see again

The perfect Christmas gift, full of drama and romance, for fans of ITV's Emmerdale and readers who love heart-wrenching stories set during wartime • December 1944. The residents of Beckindale can't believe they're going through another wartime Christmas, although the success of the D-Day landings earlier in the year has brought some hope to the village. The women of Emmerdale are navigating their own lives, loves and dreams, and as the war draws to a close, they realise things will never be the same again • The Emmerdale girls are going to learn things are never dull where love is involved • Exploring the lives of Emmerdale's much-loved families during World War II, including favourites such as the Sugdens and the Dingles, The Emmerdale Girls is a hopeful and nostalgic novel about community, friendship, and love

Stockport, 1944 • Alice seems to have it all, but the truth is her marriage isn't as solid as it seems. Busy running her husband's family shop while he's at war, everything changes when she meets handsome Louis, fresh in from Guernsey with young evacuee twins Gabriela and Philip • Factory heir Sophie is thrilled to be getting married - if only her mother her mother didn't disapprove! She's marrying for love, but her mother is convinced Tony is marrying for money. Is there more to her concern than Sophie realises? • Emily is tired of being pitied as the single friend. She's not averse to marriage but she's in no rush either! When she meets Italian prisoner-of-war Marco, she knows there can be no future. Her brother was killed in Dunkirk and her family would never accept an Italian

Two years of war have taken a terrible toll on Pearl Street, Liverpool. German bombs have reduced some houses to rubble and most of the inhabitants have lost friends and family. While sisters Eileen and Sheila share the anxious burden of absent husbands, the conflict for others brings excitement and freedom. Kitty Quigley, stuck at home for years with an invalid father, is forced to register for war work and is delighted to become an auxiliary nurse. And Jessica Fleming, struggling to earn a living, finds herself and her friend Rita increasingly drawn to the glamour and excitement of the Yanks • Maureen Lee once again confirms her talent as a wonderful storyteller, weaving together the lives of a Liverpool community in the Second World War

The stars are coming out to play • Secrets, rivalry, glamour - it's time for the party of the year • Delilah has lived out her tempestuous marriage to hell-raiser Raf in the glare of the media spotlight. Now planning a milestone birthday, she has more on her mind than invitations. Raf has been offered a part in a movie he can't refuse. But will he succumb to the temptations he's struggled to resist for the last ten years? • Delilah's three daughters are building careers of their own, only too aware that the press are waiting for them to slip up. For the Rafferty girls might look like angels, but they are only human. It's the perfect recipe for a party like no other

Running from a troubled childhood, Jack Devereaux left home as soon as he could and never looked back - until the day a stranger calls, begging him to return to his hometown of Jasperville, Quebec • Jack's brother Calvis - the little boy he left behind more than twenty years ago - has viciously attacked a man and left him for dead. Nobody knows why he did it, though Jack suspects it has something to do with the Jasperville girls who were lost all those years ago • But as he begins the long journey home through the frozen, unforgiving landscape, Jack isn't wondering why his little brother lost his mind. He's wondering why it took so long

September 1940 - the cruellest year of war for Britain's civilians as the Luftwaffe mercilessly blitz their cities. In Pearl Street, near to Liverpool's vital docks, families struggle to cope as best they can • A nasty surprise for ever-cheerful dressmaker Brenda Mahon and flighty Sean's love for little Alice show how life goes on even when it appears to be falling apart. Yet while Eileen Costello tries to hide her ruined hopes of happiness with Nick and do her best by the husband she hoped had gone for ever, Ruth Singerman returns having escaped from Austria. Even the joy of seeing her father again cannot make up for the loss of her children

September, 1356. Poitiers. The greatest knights of the age were ready to give battle • On the English side Edward, the Black Prince, who'd earned his spurs at Crecy • On the French side, the King and his son, the Dauphin. With 12,000 knights • And then there is William Gold. A cook's boy - the lowest of the low - who had once been branded as a thief. William dreams of being a knight, but in this savage new world of intrigue, betrayal and greed, first he must learn to survive • As rapacious English mercenaries plunder a country already ravaged by plague, and the peasantry take violent revenge against the French knights who have failed to protect them, is chivalry any more than a boyish fantasy?

The Truth Will Out is thrilling and utterly compulsive dark women's fiction exploring a cast of characters who fall into the depths of jealousy and paranoia as they begin to rehearse an acclaimed play, steeped in controversy • 'Maybe I've told that version of the story so often, that I can't remember the truth of it anymore.' • Dara Gaffney is fresh out of drama school when she lands the leading role in the revival of Eabha de Lacey's hugely successful yet controversial play • Based on the true story of the death of Cillian Butler, many claim that Eabha had an ulterior motive when she penned it. Cillian's death remains a mystery to this day, and Eabha and her brother, Austin, the only witnesses • As the media storm builds and the opening night draws closer, the cast find it harder and harder to separate themselves from the characters