Hobbies and Crafts

Diamonds In The Dust - Beryl Matthews

London 1920. Dora Bentley's father had been killed in the War and their mother, Harriet, works at night at Grants clothing factory in order to support her family. While she is at work Dora looks after her brother, twelve-year-old Tom, and little Lilly. Their mother is always home in time to share breakfast with them and take Lilly to school. One morning their mother doesn't arrive home at the usual time, and thinking that she must have been delayed, Dora goes to the factory to find out. When she is told that they don’t have a night shift, and no one by the name of Harriet Bentley has ever worked there, she Dora realizes there are secrets in her family and she must discover the truth.

Apologies for delay :-(

My Suggestions are

An Eye for an Eye - Maureen Lee

Culloden: an elite boarding school for girls in New Hampshire, surrounded by fields of yellow corn which roll down to the sea, is now a headline in the national newspapers due to a mysterious disappearance.

On their very last day of school, three young women say goodbye to each other for a final time: Julie, Cornelia and Sam. But as they do so, they make a promise: never to contact each other again, never to speak of what happened that term.

Among the privileged families who mingle on the grass lawns at graduation, there are those who carry secrets of their own.

And Culloden is a school with more than one dark secret at its heart...

Even the kindle price for that book is £9 I have never seen a kindle book that price before, I wonder why?

Have never seen a paper back novel for that price at all though.. You sure that was not buying the flower shop? :-)

I have no idea.. that is terrible.. the price here would be about $34 - $39 which = about 15 quid in your money... Amazon has paper backs and kindles.. I got it from the library for free..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Flower-Arrangement-Ella-Griffin/dp/1409145832

Oof!!! Do people really pay £45 for a paperback Perse (Must be a special edition of the Flower Arrangement for that price.

The Flower Arrangement by Ella Griffin

Golden peonies bowing their heads beneath blue delphinium bells. Delicate pink anemones threaded between freckled green orchids. Soft apricot roses woven together with velvety purple irises. Every bouquet tells a story. And every story begins at Blossom & Grow, a tiny jewel-like flower shop in the heart of Dublin. Here, among the buckets of fragrant blooms, beneath the flickering candles and lanterns, Lara works her magic. Translating feelings into flower arrangements that change hearts and lives. But what about her own heart? Has she really healed since she lost her chance to be a mother? What will happen when her own story takes a sudden turn? Can the flowers that heal the customers work their magic on the florist? Drawing together a delightful cast of characters, Ella Griffin brings her warmth, wit and wisdom to a captivating tale woven around a Dublin florist.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Set in South Carolina during 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of a fourteen year old white girl, Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily’s fierce-hearted “stand-in mother,” Rosaleen, insults three racists in town, they escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily finds refuge in their mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna.

Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother. The Secret Life of Bees is a major literary triumph about the search for love and belonging, a novel that possesses a rare wisdom about life and the power and divinity of the female spirit.

Second suggestion.

Daddy's Gone A-Hunting. By Mary Higgins Clark.

A dark family secret puts the lives of two sisters in grave danger.

Hannah Connelly is plunged into a nightmare when she learns that Connelly Fine Antique Reproductions, the family business founded by her grandfather, has been levelled by a Hugh explosion.

The ashes reveal a startling and grisly discovery. Could the explosion have been deliberately set? And what was Kate, Hannah's sister and a Highflyer in an accounting firm, doing in the building in the middle of the night?

With Kate lying in a coma in hospital, it is now down to Hannah to discover what truly happened. But little does she know that someone will anything they can to prevent Kate from regaining consciousness. Will Hannah find out the truth before that person kills to save himself?

First suggestion.

The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed


By the waters running through the valleys of Kashmir, teenage boys come to play cricket, talk about girls, and just be. But a few years later, when they are young men and violence grips the region, they are gone.

Only the son of the local headman has stayed. He knows his friends have slipped over the boarder to Pakistan and turned militant to bear arms against the Indian army.
He would like to join them - but he cannot.

Instead, put in an impossible position by an Indian army captain, he must cross into the shadowlsnd between the opposing sides, a ghost walking among the dead. His fate, like that of his brothers, unknown ...,.......

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of ninth-century Northumbria. Orphaned at ten, he is captured and adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways. Yet Uhtred's fate is indissolubly bound up with Alfred, King of Wessex, who rules over the only English kingdom to survive the Danish assault.
The struggle between the English and the Danes and the strife between christianity and paganism is the background to Uhtred's growing up. He is left uncertain of his loyalties but a slaughter in a winter dawn propels him to the English side and he will become a man just as the Danes launch their fiercest attack yet on Alfred's kingdom. Marriage ties him further still to the West Saxon cause but when his wife and child vanish in the chaos of the Danish invasion, Uhtred is driven to face the greatest of the Viking chieftains in a battle beside the sea. There, in the horror of the shield-wall, he discovers his true allegiance.

The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves

The Crow Trap is the first book in Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series - now a major ITV detective drama starring Brenda Blethyn, Vera.
Three very different women come together at isolated Baikie's Cottage on the North Pennines, to complete an environmental survey. Three women who each know the meaning of betrayal . . .
Rachael, the team leader, is still reeling after a double betrayal by her lover and boss, Peter Kemp. Anne, a botanist, sees the survey as a chance to indulge in a little deception of her own. And then there is Grace, a strange, uncommunicative young woman, hiding plenty of her own secrets.
Rachael is the first to arrive at the cottage, where she discovers the body of her friend, Bella Furness. Bella, it appears, has committed suicide - a verdict Rachael refuses to accept.
When another death occurs, a fourth woman enters the picture - the unconventional Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope . . .

I don't think they have Stella, many thanks. Sorry I thought you meant you hadn't read it. I am sure now the book is published you will be pleased to have books in the pipeline to read!!

ok, please may i suggest Daphne Du Maurier's "The Loving Spirit" which is an all time favourite of mine set in Cornwall in the early 1900's


Also a book which i surprisingly enjoyed which was recommended to me Rachel Joyce's "The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy",

i don't know if these 2 have been reviewed before

:-)

i did read it Ann, i have posted a review on the other thread x

Stella, please still suggest the books though as it makes it more interesting for the rest of us to have more to choose from. and vote as well. Make a note of the Throwaway children and maybe read it when you have time, you can always add your review at a later date.

i am happy to go along with the final vote as i have not had time to read lately due to publishing my own book, and i know i should make more time

:-D

If you go away by Adele parks

1914. Vivian, a young, impassioned debutante is hurried into a pedestrian marriage to cover a scandal. War breaks out on her wedding day - domestically and across Europe. Quick to escape the disappointment of matrimony, her traditionalist husband immediately enlists and Vivian has no alternative than to take up the management and running of his estate - after all, everyone is required to do their bit. Even pretty, inadequately-educated young wives.
Howard, a brilliant young playwright rushes to the front to see for himself the best and the worst of humanity; he cannot imagine what the horror might be. In March 1916, when conscription becomes law, it is no longer enough for him to report on the War, it's a legal requirement that he joins the ranks. Howard refuses, becoming one of the most notorious conscientious objectors of the time. Disarmingly handsome, famous, articulate and informed, he's a threat to the government. Narrowly escaping a death sentence by agreeing to take essential work on Vivian's farm, it's only then Howard understands what is worth fighting for.

A True Love of mine by Margaret Thornton
Keeping secrets can hurt those you love.
August 1900, ten year old Maddy Moon is relishing the prospect of a long summer in Scarborough stretching out ahead of her.
While watching the Pierrot shows on the beach she meets and befriends another young girl, Jessie, who is holidaying in Scarborough for the summer. Maddy is enjoying having someone to show around, relieved that the ‘family business’ Isaac Moon and sons Undertakers has not put Jessie off.

But, all is not well in the Moon household. Stern faced Bella Randall, assistant to the Moon’s family business, has a dark past and a mysterious hold over Maddy’s father. Maddy distrusts the woman and it isn’t long before her summer of ice creams and sunshine is followed by heartache and loss. Long buried secrets threaten to ruin the Moon family and only time will tell if they can escape the trappings of the past and move to a rosier future

Just waiting for mersey now I think. Two books as usual please.