Jessica Stirling

Shamrock Green Ssa

Julie and Anna Martindale have both married artists - but they embark on a reckless spiral of deceit, rivalry and betrayal that ends on a fateful voyage to New York. Handsome, freewheeling Clive Cavendish marries Julie after a whirlwind seduction - and when his ambitious schemes begin to pay off Julie is more than happy to be the wife of an up-and-coming painter and the mother of his children. Anna's husband, Howard Buskin, is rich, moody and reclusive. He prefers painting Dartmoor's brooding landscapes to his beautiful young bride and from the first their uneasy, loveless marriage totters on the brink of crisis. Only when American art collector Teddy Norris enters their lives with a proposal that Howard cannot ignore, and an easy-going charm that sweeps Anna into a tempestous affair, do the sisters begin to question their loyalty to their husbands and to each other. A loyalty that will be tested to the limit on the first, and last, Atlantic crossing of the White Star's new super-liner, the unsinkable Titanic - a voyage not all of them will survive.

The Last Voyage

Lizzie Conway has clawed her way out of the worst slums of the Gorbals, all for the sake of her three daughters, her most prized possessions. She would do anything to protect Polly, Babs and poor, deaf Rosie. In this tough part of Glasgow, there are many dangers - physical and moral - facing women. And the girls themselves seem sometimes to be determined to make marriages as unwise as the one that landed her with crippling debts, three small children and no man to take care of them . . . But Lizzie is a fighter, and - to her surprise - so are more than one of her girls.

Prized Possessions

Jessica Stirling's enthralling novel set in the darkest days of the Second World War. With her husband away in the army, mother-of-four Babs sends three of her darlings to the country and goes back to work. Her routine is disrupted, however, when a charming American news photographer walks into her life. Rosie's job as a factory worker is marred by the taunts of her snobbish co-workers. Eager to start a family but fearful of passing on her deafness to her children, she blames her husband for her unhappiness and risks not only her marriage but her future because of it. Wealthy and self assured, Polly manages her husband's shady empire, conducts a loveless affair with a lawyer, and tries to forget that her children now live with their father in New York. When Dominic explodes back into her life, Polly is forced to choose between loyalty and betrayal, and, as bombs begin to fall, tragedy overtakes the Conway girls.

Wives at War

The first novel in the trilogy which continues with Creature Comforts and Hearts of Gold, set in Fife from 1814 into the Victorian era. One November night, highlander Gaddy Patterson strays into the staid lowland parish of Balnesmoor, and stumbles upon a dead girl and her baby. Gaddy struggles to scrape a living for herself and the child, and in her struggle against the hatred of the village, she uncovers their long-hidden secrets... Praise for the trilogy: 'Stirling skilfully offers her readers a story rich with believable characters and colourful settings.' Best Sellers 'Beautifully written - full of the harsh realities and traditional relationships shaping life in early 19th-century Scotland. Highly recommended.' Library Journal

Book One

Treasures on Earth

The third novel in the Stalker Trilogy, which began with The Spoiled Earth and The Hiring Fair, set in the Lanarkshire mining village of Blacklaw in the 1890s. Seventeen years have passed and the Lanarkshire mining village of Blacklaw has weathered both depression and the driving ambition of its coalmaster. But at last, falling wages have driven the miners to desperate rebellion... In Edinburgh, Drew Stalker has become Scotland's most eminent young advocate, with the highest honours within his grasp. Only scandal can bring him down - and scandal in the form of his bastard son is about to re-enter his life. His sister Mirrin faces a different threat to her hard-won respectability. As Tom Armstrong's eyesight fails and her farm's future become uncertain, Mirrin must draw on all her courage to survive. Praise for The Stalker Trilogy: 'Family ties, family strengths and weaknesses, ambition, greed loyalty and love . . . the story is compelling.' Daily Telegraph 'I would strongly recommend it to anyone with a taste for family sagas.' Scotsman

Book Three

The Dark Pasture

Whatever Happened to Molly Bloom

Servant girl Betsy McBride thinks she has as much right as any girl to set her cap at Tom Brodie, the most dashing young man in the district. When her master asks her to help out the Brodie family she jumps at the chance to get a bit closer to him. She doesn't realise that Tom Brodie thinks the only way to save his family's fortune - or at least their farm - is to dazzle his landlord's daughter. There is heartbreak is on the horizon unless Tom's much more down-to-earth brother Henry can catch Betsy's attention.

A Kiss and a Promise

In Jessica Stirling's Prized Possessions, Lizzie Conway has clawed her way out of the slums despite the crippling debt left behind by a long-vanished husband. To give her three daughters a better life, Lizzie sacrifices her own chance of happiness to break the endless round of poverty that engulfs them. But as the girls grow up, Lizzie is unable to protect them from the biggest threat of all--falling in love with men like their father.

Set in the bohemian artistic world of Edwardian England, Jessica Stirling's new novel reaches a thrilling and romantic climax as the Titanic sails for New York.

The last voyage

The second compelling novel in the Nicholson Quartet sees Kirsty and Craig struggling to keep their family together... Imprisoned in a false 'marriage' and trapped in Glasgow's mean streets, Kirsty and Craig Nicholson are drifting apart, held together only by their son, Bobby. Kirsty finds herself drawn more and more to David Lockhart, the young minister who cares for her deeply. But David is bound to return to China and only his love for Kirsty keeps him in Scotland. Craig, now a committed policeman, is incensed by the behaviour of his family when they fall under the influence of a rich and generous patron, and seeks solace in the arms of a street woman from the burgh's dark slums. His growing obsession with her threatens not only Kirsty, but the future of his family too . . .

Book Two

The Asking Price

Glasgow is a city teeming with immigrants, rich and poor, schemers and victims alike. And the McKennas, fresh from Ireland, have no intention of being victims. When Nolan McKenna and his sisters arrived unannounced on Cissie Cassidy's doorstep claiming to be her late husband's long-lost relatives, the lonely widow is all too willing to be taken in and trusting enough to help them find them a foothold in the city. While Nolan wields a shovel for twelve back-breaking hours a day, the beautiful, trusting Clare takes up with the wrong man instead of the collection agent who yearns to make her his bride. Sharp-witted and pretty, Evie is made of more ambitious stuff and uses her job behind the bar of the Harp of Erin to attract the attentions of Russell Blackstock, builder and land-speculator, who owns half the tenements on Clydeside - and plans to own still more. The worlds of the wealthy Blackstocks and the penniless McKennas are set on a collision course that will mean huge changes for them, and for the city they live in.

Blessings in Disguise

The first in a new series featuring Detective Jim Kinsella. Who murdered Molly? Was it Leopold Bloom, in the kitchen, with a teapot . . .? This finely crafted historical mystery, using several recognizable characters and the famous setting from James Joyce’s Ulysses, marks an intriguing departure for saga writer Jessica Stirling. Detective Inspector Jim Kinsella of the Dublin police force is called to the scene when the body of Molly Bloom has been found in her own kitchen where she has been beaten to death with a teapot. Although her husband, Leopold Bloom, is immediately taken into custody without a convincing alibi, Kinsella begins to have his doubts and suspicion falls upon Molly’s fellow singer and alleged lover, Hugh ‘Blazes’ Boylan. Kinsella, aided by his colleague, Inspector Tom Machin, probes the conflicting stories of Bloom and Boylan. Were the pair seen fighting outside a brothel the night of Molly’s murder? And what of the unusual scent, imported from America and found on a cotton ball beneath the Blooms’ bed, that Kinsella hopes will lead him to Leopold’s own dirty little secret? Kinsella is determined to ensure the wrong man doesn’t end up behind bars, and, in seeking the truth, stumbles upon more than he bargained for...

War has come to London once more and Holly Beckman, now a widow, is forced to find new depths of courage in the face of adversity. David Aspinall, her first lover, has come back after twenty years abroad. He still holds a fatal charm for Holly but only time will tell if she can finally trust him. A new generation defies convention in the face of death, as Holly's RAF pilot son Chris and David's niece embark on a whirlwind affair. Across the channel, Ritchie Beckman - his lucrative art business crumbling as the Germans advance on Paris - risks everything to outwit the Nazis, but his plan could mean tragedy for the whole Beckman family... 'She writes in bright colours with bold, confident strokes' Glasgow Herald

The Gates of Midnight

Geplatzte Träume, geheime Liebschaften: Das Leben zweier Schwestern im Schottland des 19. Jahrhunderts Schottland, 1812. Elspeth und Anna Patterson von Balnesmoor haben eine gute Partie gemacht: Elspeth hat einen wohlhabenden Kaufmann geheiratet, ihre Stiefschwester Anna den Sohn eines angesehenen Fabrikanten. Doch Elspeth' Ehe ist eine lieblose Gemeinschaft, die von einem dunklen Geheimnis überschattet wird. Auch Anna ist mit ihrem Ehemann nicht zufrieden: Seine ehrliche, gutmütige Art stößt sie ab. Stattdessen träumt sie von einem attraktiven Soldaten und wartet auf seine Rückkehr aus dem Krieg. Doch Annas Träume haben ungeahnte Konsequenzen, und Elspeth entdeckt die Liebe - außerhalb ihrer Ehe ... Dieser Liebesroman ist in einer früheren Ausgabe unter dem Titel "Träume im Landhaus" erschienen. "Die Schwestern aus Balnesmoor" ist ein in sich abgeschlossener Roman und zugleich der zweite Teil der historischen Familiensaga über das wechselvolle Leben und Lieben der beiden Stiefschwestern Elspeth und Anna. Nächster und letzter Band der Trilogie: "Die Früchte der Erde". eBooks von beHEARTBEAT - Herzklopfen garantiert.

Die Schwestern aus Balnesmoor

The Spoiled Earth

The Martindale sisters are about to embark on a reckless journey of deceit, rivalry and betrayal that reaches a thrilling and romantic climax as the Titanic sails for New York... At first, handsome, freewheeling Clive Cavendish does not appear to be an ideal catch for Julie. But when a whirlwind seduction leads to love and marriage and Clive's ambitious schemes begin to pay off Julie is more than happy to be the wife of an up-and-coming painter and the mother of his children. Anna's suitor, Howard Buskin, is rich, moody and reclusive. He prefers painting Dartmoor's brooding landscapes to courting the beautiful young woman his mother has chosen to be his bride and from the first their uneasy, loveless marriage totters on the brink of crisis. Only when American art collector Teddy Norris enters their lives with a proposal that Howard cannot ignore, and an easy-going charm that sweeps Anna into a tempestous affair, do the sisters begin to question their loyalty to their husbands and to each other. A loyalty that will be tested to the limit on the first, and last, Atlantic crossing of the White Star's new super-liner, the unsinkable Titanic - a voyage not all of them will survive.

Set in wartime London, the second novel in The Hooper Family series continues the story that began with A Corner of the Heart: the saga of an East End clan that knows both the Shadwell docklands and the world of books and broadcasting. The war everyone dreaded has begun at last, but for Susan Cahill it is more an adventure than a tragedy. Helped by a white lie about her marriage to Danny she has a new job as a producer's assistant at the BBC and glamorous new friends, including one American war reporter who has made London his base and Susan his target. Danny is also working for the BBC, sharing a room in a freezing farmhouse in Evesham, working long hours monitoring German radio broadcasts - and worrying about Susan. Stuck in London when the blitz begins, Susan's sister-in-law, Breda Hooper, faces up to the worst with a small son at home and a husband in the fire service. Then her Italian father, hiding out from both the authorities and his former partners in crime, prepares to leave Breda a legacy as explosive as any German bomb.

The Hooper Family Saga Book Two

The Wayward Wife

Gene Lancour

Southern Wind

Susanne Thorne is an orphan of means, one reason why Bette Hollander carries the young English girl off to her home in far-away Scotland. Bette would be more than happy for Susanne to fall in love with her handsome, headstrong son Louis, for marriage to the little heiress would repay old debts and restore the Hollander family's fortunes. But love cannot be delivered to order and as Susanne grows up and proves to have a mind of her own, Bette's plans for a match made in heaven seem fated to end in disaster.

Jessica Stirling

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