Recently widowed, Hannah Firth is still young - young enough to dream of a new life. When her spiteful daughter-in-law uses her as an unpaid servant, Hannah tries to leave, but she is unaware of the depths that Patty's spite will lead her to.

Lally Fraser, widowed at 20, seeks comfort with dashing young mill owner Roly Sinclair. But when she finds she is expecting his baby, she turns to his dour brother Harry for help. Secretly in love with her, Harry offers her marriage. Roly, though, is anything but pleased. Threatening scandal or worse, he sets out to destroy them both. And when Harry is injured in a vicious attack, Lally must take charge of the mills to protect her children and the...

Roy is a con man living in a leafy English suburb, about to pull off the final coup of his career. He is going to meet and woo a beautiful woman. He will swiftly move in with her, and together they will live the seemingly calm life of a retired couple - evenings in front of the television, a little holiday in Berlin. Then he will slip away with her life savings. But who is the man behind the con? What has he had to do to survive this life of lies?...

A peaceful, unexciting place, the very heart of middle England. In Little Woodford no one has fingers in more pies than Olivia Laithwaite, parish councillor, chair of the local WI, wife, mother and all round queen bee. So of course it's Olivia who is first to spot that The Beeches has been sold at last. Soon rumours begin to swirl around the young widow who has bought this lovely house. Why exactly did she leave London with her beautiful stepdaughter...

Jack Warr is a young DC with the Metropolitan Police. Charming but aimless, Jack can't seem to find his place in the world - until he's drawn into an investigation that turns his life upside down. In the aftermath of a fire at a derelict cottage, a badly charred body is discovered, along with the burnt remnants of millions of stolen, untraceable bank notes - the hidden legacy of Dolly Rawlins and her gang of Widows. Jack's assignment to the case coincides...

Newly widowed after a forty-year marriage, Margaret Wright is finding it hard to adjust to independence, having been stifled for so long by her overbearing, controlling husband. Is she up to the challenge?

Anna's family hope that a South African safari holiday will help her to get over her beloved husband's death. No-one is more surprised than Anna herself when she finds herself strongly attracted to a fellow traveller, Lewis Masters, and despite her initial resistance, she is soon drawn into a new relationship. But back home, Anna's journalist son Jonathan is being repeatedly contacted by a young woman asking for his help, even though she's too frightened...

Lucy Barton is a successful writer living in New York, navigating the second half of her life as a recent widow and parent to two adult daughters. A surprise encounter leads her to reconnect with William, her first husband - and longtime, on-again-off-again friend and confidante. Recalling their college years, the birth of their daughters, the painful dissolution of their marriage, and the lives they built with other people, Strout weaves a portrait,...

Writing a new future takes a little time-and a lot of love. Jean Vison never expected to run a book club, until her life took an unexpected turn.Now, with Jean?s husband gone, what began as an off-the-cuff idea has grown into a group of six women who meet the second Tuesday of every month for a potluck supper, for wine and laughter-and for books. There?s Loretta, who deals with the lack of intimacy in her marriage by diving into erotic novels....

Mattie Maguire is a 26-year-old widow with an infant son. Since her husband, Brian, died three years before, she has struggled to keep the family's East End coal business solvent, as well as taking care of her troubled mother-in-law. But unbeknown to Mattie, life is about to get even tougher. Maguire's is in the path of the proposed Wapping to Mile End Railway extension that Amos Stebbins is trying to raise capital for, and he has his sights set on...