Description

A stirring novel of passion, lost loves and one girl’s determination to conquer the odds from the author of Child of the Mersey.

When Connie Pride finds herself alone and pregnant in the rough courts of Liverpool, she despairs. Deserted by her lover, menaced by his bullying uncle, and too proud to ask her estranged family for help, there seems no hope.

Rescued from the gutter, she is offered the chance to train as a nurse at the Poor Hospital. Life becomes a whirl of hard work and long shifts, but also lively evenings at the music hall with her fellow nurses and the newly drafted soldiers. Finally Connie has a purpose in life – especially when the wounded of World War 1 start to arrive in their droves on the hospital wards. With a roof over her head and a steady wage, if she can stay out of trouble, the future looks brighter. Even love seems possible again …

But then a face from the violent past turns up to disrupt Connie’s new life and shatter her dreams. All she has built up is threatened – and she herself is in physical danger. It will take every ounce of the courage she possesses to overcome the odds – and a little help from old friends and new …

About the author(s)

Annie Groves was the creation of the much-loved writer, Penny Halsall, who died in 2011. Penny was born and lived in the north-west of England all of her life and the Annie Groves novels drew on her family’s history, picked up from listening to her grandmother’s stories as a child.
Penny’s legacy of heart-warming and uplifting novels lives on through writer Jenny Shaw – who knew Penny personally for many years.

Reviews

PRAISE FOR ANNIE GROVES:

‘An engrossing story.’ My Weekly

‘A stirring and heartrending family saga…Against a backdrop of change when the suffragette movement was coming to the fore, the choices and dreams of a generation of women combine to create this passionate story.’ Liverpool Daily Post

‘Heartwrenching and uplifting in equal measure – a tragic indictment of what can happen when you swap passion for duty. Roll on the sequel!’ Take a Break Fiction Feast

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