Hettie of Hope Street

Description

A breathtaking tale set in 1920s Liverpool and London of one girl's determination to trace her roots, find true love and succeed in a world where obstacles lurk around every corner. Hettie is an orphan, taken in by Ellie Pride and her husband to their Preston home and treated as one of the family. But she has never felt she truly belonged. Hettie has a special gift - a beautiful singing voice - and on the cusp of womanhood, she makes a choice that will alter the course of her life. Amid the bright lights of Liverpool, she will follow her dreams. But once there, the only way to survive is working in the kitchens of a restaurant. Until, by chance, she is heard singing by the owner... Whisked to London, Hettie is thrown into a theatrical and colourful world but one with a dark side, its young inhabitants haunted by the horror of the First World War, and stalked by the fear of the Depression to come. Then tragedy strikes, and Hettie must decide between her heart and her head, her duty and her desire...

Annie Groves lives in the North-West and has done so of all her life. This is the third in a series of novels about the adventures of the Pride family of Preston, which take place in the tumultuous years leading up to, during, and after the First World War, and for which she has drawn upon her own family's history, picked up from listening to her grandmother's stories when she was a child. Her grandmother's great pride in her hometown - Preston - inspired Annie when naming her fictional family.

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